Community Medicine Abstracts - College of Medicine and Health ...

Project No. 250 (2009)Knowledge, attitude and practice of car seat use among pregnant women inAl Ain city: a cross-sectional studyStudent Authors: Nuha Nasir Mohamed Al Zaabi, Shamsa Mohammad Abdulla AlSuwaidi, Iman Rashed Humaid Al ShamsiFaculty Supervisors: Dr. I Blair, Dr. M. Grivna, Dr. R. BernsenAbstract:Introduction: The leading cause of death for children younger than 14 years of age isvehicular injury world wide. 460 children up to 14 years of age were killed in car crashinjuries in the UAE in the last 6 years. A study done in USA found that child restraintreduces the death rates in car crashes by 71% among infants and 54% among youngchildren. The prevalence of child car restraints in Al Ain city in 2004 was only 7%according to a study done by medical students. There is no law in the UAE regardingthe use of child car seats, however, seating children under the age of ten in the frontseat of the car leads to a fine of Dhs 400 and four traffic points.Methods: The study was carried out in Tawam, Al Ain and Oasis Hospitals of Al AinCity, one of the main cities of the UAE with a population of 460,000.A sample of 223pregnant women visiting the obstetric outpatient clinics were included. A consentform and information sheets were provided before subjects completed a selfadministeredquestionnaire.Results: The mean age of the participants was 28.9. forty three percent (96) wereEmarati nationals. 65% of the participants have children of which 71% answered thattheir children travel in their husband's cars. Seventy three percent of women whohave children do not own a car seat. 78% of the participants had poor knowledge ofcar seats’ use, 20% had good knowledge, while only 2% had excellent knowledge.99% of the participants either agreed or strongly agreed that car seats use isimportant. 76% of the participants thought that the best policy to change the presentattitude towards the use of car seats is to educate the public regarding car seats useand 27% thought that the best policy is to enforce car seat use by law.Statistically significant associations were found between owning a car seat and themonthly income (p value0.04), achieving a high knowledge score (p value 0.001),travelling in the mother’s car (p value 0.001), and believing that car seat use isimportant (p value 0.006). We have also found a statistically significant associationbetween a high knowledge score and believing that car seat use is important (p value0.05).Conclusion: Our study highlighted the importance of establishing educationalcampaigns to raise awareness and increase the practice of car seat use. Although theresults showed poor practice among the pregnant women which can be attributed totheir poor knowledge, still they demonstrated excellent attitude. One of the majorcontributing factors of not having car seats was related to the family income, so werecommend providing good quality car seats in affordable prices.