Evaluation of two comprehensive infant car seat loaner programs with 1-year follow-up.

Since the American Academy of Pediatrics instituted the "First Ride-Safe Ride" campaign, many child passenger safety programs have reported that they have achieved less than optimal results. The present study compared two comprehensive programs for encouraging new parents to use child restraint devices consistently and correctly and compared the present results with the results of a previous program that was conducted at the same hospital. A total of 129 mother-newborn pairs were randomly assigned to two groups. All of the participants had their babies at a hospital that had an established car seat loaner program with strong support from the medical staff, the nursing staff, and the hospital administration; the hospital was in a state that had a law mandating child restraint seat usage. One group was exposed to the regular hospital program and the other group had, in addition: a mock-up demonstration for the mothers on the correct method of fastening the baby into the car seat and the car seat into the automobile seat; written handouts of how to use a car seat with an infant; a physician's order for the mock-up demonstration; and a physician's order to be discharged in a car seat. Although there was no significant difference between the two groups, both groups had correct usage rates above 90% at hospital discharge and maintained usage at better than 80% for one full year. A comparison with an earlier study at the same hospital suggested that the duration and comprehensiveness of the programs accounted for the significant increase in the usage rates. The task now is to adapt the program for use with less motivated parents.

RCT Entities:   Population Interventions Outcomes