Status of safety seats using for children aged 3 to 6 in a community in Shanghai

ObjectiveTo ascertin the needs of community parents for their children′s safe ride, for child safety seats, and their level of relevant knowledge about safety seats.

MethodsThe investigation covered parents with private cars whose children were 3-6 years old in the public kindergartens of the Wuli community, in adoption of questionnaire survey with regard to parents′ knowledge about car ride safety and their attitude to awareness of child safety seat and its usage.

ResultsInvestigation was done on 565 respondents, of whom 66.96% were equipped with child safety seats.In travelling, the usage rate of the safety seat was 44.76%.When child travel frequency was more than 10 times per week, the usage of the safety seat was always the highest.Sometimes children did not use safety seats.The top 3 reasons for that were: the distance was near; there was no need to use; seat occupied space; or child was crying.

ConclusionThe use of children′s safety seats is not yet widespread, and in the course of usage, there exist irregular operation and cognitive misunderstanding.It is suggested that multiple departments concerned should be associated in further promotion of the use of child safety seats.