UMTRI Project

Evaluation of TREAD Booster Seat Demonstration Projects

Sponsor: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Investigator: Lidia P. Kostyniuk
07/15/2004 - 09/30/2007

The Transportation Recall, Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation (TREAD) Act of November 2000 requires NHTSA to develop a five-year strategic plan to reduce deaths and injuries caused by the failure to use appropriate booster seats among child passengers age 4-8. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a set of interventions to increase booster-seat use, designed and administered by the Think First Injury Prevention Foundation (under a Cooperative Agreement with NHTSA). The Think First intervention program is being conducted at four locations (San Diego, Chicago, Wilmington, and rural South Carolina) and consists of combinations of school-based educational programs, outreach programs at pediatric offices, faith-based organizations, and booster-seat fitting stations. Think First is gathering booster-seat use data at the participating schools, as well as knowledge and attitudes toward booster seats among parents of pupils at the participating schools. The UMTRI research team will collect two waves of booster-seat use data through direct observation at comparison schools and community locations around some of the participating schools and all of the comparison schools. UMTRI will also conduct surveys of parental knowledge and attitudes at the comparison schools. On-going national booster-seat programs will be monitored and included in the evaluation. UMTRI will analyze all the direct observation data and attitudinal data to assess the changes in booster-seat use over time at each location; if exposure to additional interventions has unique effects; if driver, vehicle, and child characteristics affect booster-seat use; and if socio-economic characteristics moderate the effects of the interventions.