Novel Program Results in Huge Rise in Child Safety Seat Use
Initiative Could be the Key to Reducing Injuries In African American Population
CINCINNATI -- Despite decades of effective injury prevention efforts, African-American children remain disproportionately affected by unintentional yet preventable injuries. But researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center may have found the key to reducing injuries in the African-American community.
A partnership between Cincinnati Children's and 14 African-American churches and their ministers has resulted in a 100 percent increase in the use of child safety seats among children 8 and under, according to a new Cincinnati Children's study. In addition, the percentage of children riding totally unrestrained decreased from 36 percent to 10 percent. Preliminary results suggest that the program was also very effective in teaching parents that children should ride in the back seat of a vehicle.
The Youth Injury Prevention (YIP) program was the brainchild of Victor Garcia, M.D., a pediatric surgeon at Cincinnati Children's and director of the Trauma Service, and Anita Brentley, YIP program director. The program, which was funded in part by the Ohio Department of Public Safety, includes several components, including a faith-based injury prevention curriculum in church Sunday school classes and sermons by church ministers focused on traffic safety and being a role model.
Although the main focus of the program is child passenger safety, the curriculum included lessons on fire safety, gun safety, home safety, drowning prevention and pedestrian safety.
"YIP recognizes the central role of the church in African-American life and the impact ministers and other trusted opinion leaders have on the African-American community," says Dr. Garcia. "As a large percentage of African-Americans profess affiliation with an organized religion, there is tremendous potential for the long-range impact of this program on crash-related injury and death. No other program that we know of has achieved a comparable increase in child safety seat usage rates."
Dr. Garcia developed the idea for the program after years of operating on children who were critically injured in motor vehicle crashes because they were not properly restrained. Too often, he has had to tell parents that their children have died. Dr. Garcia is now more hopeful than ever about reducing rates of unintentional injury in the African-American community.
The church curriculum was developed by physicians and injury prevention experts at Cincinnati Children's, church congregation members, Cincinnati Red Cross, Boy Scouts of America, Theater IV, and participating ministers at 14 churches. In addition to classes and sermons, a gospel play, Give Us This Day, which demonstrated church and community empowerment due to a tragedy, was presented to each congregation during morning worship; parents and grandparents received church training regarding each of the injury prevention topics; injury prevention tips were included in church bulletins; and teenagers were involved in church presentations whose messages stressed responsibility.
The program also was effective in increasing use of seat belts among drivers, whose usage rates increased from 58.3 percent to 74.4 percent, and adult passengers, whose use of seat belts increased from 48 percent to 71 percent.
YIP has now expanded to include 21 African-American churches and their ministers in 11 communities in the area.
Contact Information
Contact: Jim Feuer (
jim.feuer@chmcc.org) 513-636-4656
