Opportunities and threats to mandatory law of child restraint usage in Iran

Abstract

Background and Aim: About one-third of Iranian children mortality is caused by injuries from which 36% occur due to road traffic injuries. Using child restraint embedded in vehicles can reduce road traffic fatalities by 71% for neonates and 54% for children. Based on its effectiveness in reduction of fatality and prevention of injury severity, child restraint usage mandatory law is a priority. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess opportunities and threats to mandatory law of child restraint usage in Iran. Materials and Methods: Initially, a mixed methods research is carried out by a phenomenological qualitative study, a discussion session by traffic injuries' stakeholders was performed to assess & discuss the opportunities and threats to mandatory law of child restraint usage in Iran, by brain storming method to find the themes in the related topic. A structured questionnaire is later prepared and completed by the stakeholders in the area of road traffic injuries. Assigned scores of 0-100 were considered for each response and analysis of results was performed according to target themes & the total score of the filled questionnaires.Results: Overall, 28 stakeholders participated in the study. According to the stakeholders, traffic police department obtained the highest score of 90 (from 0-100) as an organization to establish the mandatory law of child restraint usage, and acquired the score of 100 for future enforcement and monitoring. As threats and obstacle to the mandatory law of child restraint usage, lack of television and media campaigns and child restraint law and legislation, obtained the highest scores of 85 & 70 respectively. And family sensitivity to their children's health, officials' support and national facilities for broadcasting, and community awareness to use child restraints had the highest scores among existing opportunities and facilities in the country, by scores of 83, 69 and 68 respectively.Conclusion: Due to sensitivity of the family about their children's health & safety, and officials' support to safety establishment through media campaigns, implementation and applicability of child restraint usage laws and legislations, and subsequent enforcement and monitoring seem practical. ReferencesIsna.ir/fa, 13th May 2012.National Center for Statistics and Analysis. 2003, www.nhtsa.dot.gov.Global status report on road safety: time for action. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2009. (www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_safety_status date of access 12 September 2012.Jacobs G, Aaron­Thomas A, Astrop A. Estimating global road fatalities. 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