Safety awareness and use of child safety seats among parents after the legislation in Shanghai

PURPOSE: To investigate the changes and underlying mechanisms in parents' safety awareness and the use of child safety seats after the mandatory legislation in Shanghai city, China. METHODS: This study was carried out by Shanghai Key Laboratory of Environment and Children's Health using a multi-stage, simple random sampling method. Volunteers with children aged 0–12 months were recruited. Child safety seats were sent to each volunteer's family. Telephone encounters and/or on-site visits were used to collect data from parents using a phased survey on children's safety during car use. RESULTS: Among all respondents, 91.2% had heard of motor vehicle accidents involving children, and 97.2% could describe the appropriate use of a safety seat to minimize the risk of child injury in a collision. Among 1078 families with newborns, awareness of child safety seats was 91.9%. There were 86% patients aware that new laws and regulations have been released regarding the use of child safety seats, and 98.5% of them plan to comply with the new laws. Moreover, 61% patients think that taxis should be routinely equipped with child safety seats. CONCLUSION: The parents in Shanghai obtained a high level of awareness of children's traffic safety after the introduction of child safety seats legislation, and had a positive experience related to the use of child safety seats. Taxi may be an important area of focus for implementation of child traffic safety. Traffic safety laws and regulations with further impact should be continuously studied.