Parent's knowledge, attitude, and practice about children car seats at Unaizah city, KSA

BACKGROUND: Motor vehicle collision (MVC) is a major cause of death in children worldwide. Using children car seats will stabilize them during accidents and decrease the morbidity and mortality from MVC dramatically. There is no study in Saudi Arabia about car seat use and relationship between using it and children morbidity and mortality following a car accident. OBJECTIVES: To assess knowledge, attitude, and practice of children car seats among parents at Unaizah city, KSA, to assess the level of awareness regarding the children car safety system, to determine the parent level of education, socioeconomic status, and other factors affecting their behavior regarding car seats, to determine the prevalence of car seat use among parents in Unaizah city, and to assess the effectiveness of car seat policies on parents’ behavior. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTINGS: Public and private pediatric clinics at Unaizah city in Qassim region. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted from May to June 2018, among parents with child ≤7 years old. Anyone who could not complete the questionnaire for any reason was excluded from our study. SPSS version 20 has been used to analyze all data. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: To assess knowledge, attitude, and practice of children car seats among parents at Unaizah city, KSA. SAMPLE SIZE: 350. RESULTS: There were 350 participants who were included in this study of which females were dominant 77.1%. The age range of parents was 25–35 years old. Most of them complied with the seatbelt policy (56.7%). Among these numbers, 130 participants use a seatbelt for security reason while others were to protect from irregularities. More parents do not put baby seat in the car (57.3%) while 57 participants use child seat every time the child rides in the car. CONCLUSION: The overall knowledge, attitude, and practices toward children car safety seat in this study was relatively low. This signifies the need of parents to step up their awareness to safe guard their children while on the road. LIMITATIONS: Small sample size and limited to pediatrics clinics visitors.