Mandatory Child Restraints: A KAP Study among Parents and Nursery Instructors

Aims: New road traffic injury (RTI) laws in Iran still neglects the importance of child restraint in automobiles. The objective of this study is to determine the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) on the mandatory use of child restraint among parents and nursery instructors.
Study Design: An observational KAP study
Place and Duration of the Study: City of Tehran capital of Iran, between June 2013 and November 2013.
Methodology: An observational KAP study was carried out (using a self-administered questionnaire and a Likert scale) on 403 parents, which children were less than 13 years old and nursery instructors both residing in Tehran by a stratified randomized sampling. Twelve elementary schools and six nurseries were selected randomly. Validity and reliability of questionnaires were determined using the content validity and test re-tests. Subjects were selected randomly and data was collected by trained interviewers, after obtaining consent forms from the subjects.
Results: The majority (71%) of parents was female, aged 36.7±5.6 (range: 25-59). Half of the parents did not have any knowledge about child restraint laws and its implementation in the country. The knowledge among subjects about different kinds of child restraints, according to the child’s age and weight, was 22.6%. Only 28% of subjects use child restraints for their children. A significant difference was observed between subjects' use of child restraints and their region of residency. Low use of child restraints was observed among 30-40 years old age group (p=0.05). Willingness to a pay extra cost to buy a better quality of child restrain was 56%. Willingness to participate in a national child restraint educational program was of 70%. The rate of community agreement to a mandatory use of child restraint in the country was 85%.
Conclusion: Knowledge and practice related to usage and kind of child restraint adjusted with child weight were low among the parents and nursery instructors. The rate of a community agreement to set a mandatory use of child restraint in the country was high.