Randomized Control Trial of Booster Seat Education Material to Increase Perceived Benefit Among Parents

Seat belts protect people from injuries by diverting crash forces to stronger anatomical structures: the rib cage and the pelvis. Children between the ages of 4 and 8 years are typically not tall enough to wear the seat belt correctly across the chest and hips, and instead wear it on their abdomen and neck. When worn in this way, seat belts direct crash forces to these parts of the body, potentially causing serious damage to internal organs and the spine. For this reason, children of these ages need to use a booster seat; a safety device that prevents seat belt related injuries by raising the child and ensuring the straps are correctly worn across the thorax and hips. In Canada, half of the children who should be using booster seats are prematurely restrained using only the seat belt. The present research project seeks to develop and test a novel intervention to encourage booster seat use. Many Canadian provinces have enacted laws mandating use, and have developed and implemented evidence-based education programs. Despite these efforts, new approaches to encourage booster seat use are required. In 2010, more than 10 years after booster seats became mandatory, the rate of utilization in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec was still low (25%). Furthermore, recent research indicates that parents' perception of the safety benefit of booster seats is the strongest predictor of use, yet no study to date has tested an education intervention that increases perceived benefit; instead, these interventions focus on teaching guidelines (i.e., minimum and maximum age, height, and weight to determine when a child should use a booster seat, and when it is safe for a child to use only the seat belt). The present approach to encouraging booster seat use is novel, because it increases perceived benefit by teaching two principles: (1) seat belts prevent injuries by redirecting crash forces to stronger parts of the body (rib cage and pelvis); and (2), without booster seats, children would wear the seat belt on their abdomen and neck, which directs crash forces to more vulnerable anatomical structures (internal organs and spine). Once parents grasp these two principles, they are expected to better appreciate the safety benefit of booster seats and, thus, be more likely to use them.