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Child Passenger Safety in the Somali Communities of Columbus, Ohio

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Abstract

Children (particularly low-income minorities and refugees) are at high risk for serious injury or death from motor vehicle crashes. Interpreter-assisted data collection included key informant interviews, focus groups and face-to-face surveys with the Somali community of Columbus, Ohio about child passenger safety. Measurements included prevalence of child safety seats use, awareness and knowledge of and barriers to proper use in order to inform development, implementation, and initial evaluation of a culturally-appropriate intervention for Somali families. Somali parents regarded child passenger safety as an important topic, but many reported improper restraint behaviors of one or more children and/or did not have an adequate number of child safety seats. Few parents reported having child safety seats installed by a professional technician. Child passenger safety practices in the Somali communities of Columbus are a public health concern that should be addressed with culturally-appropriate interventions.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of our partners at the Somali Women and Children’s Alliance, the Somali interpreters, Ann Mehl, MPH, and Nicolas G. Nelson, MPH, NP, formerly of the Center for Injury Research and Policy, Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. The interpretations and opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the funding agency.

Author Contributions

Lara McKenzie led the study design and implementation, data analysis and manuscript preparation. Erica Fowler contributed to the data collection, data analysis, and manuscript preparation. Kristin Roberts assisted with the data analysis and manuscript preparation, and reviewing the final manuscript. Roxanne Kaercher assisted with the manuscript. All authors reviewed the final version of the manuscript.

Funding

This study was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Grant Number 5 R49 CE 001172-03).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Injury Research and Policy, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA

    Lara B. McKenzie, Erica Fowler, Kristin J. Roberts & Roxanne M. Kaercher

  2. Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Lara B. McKenzie

  3. Division of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Lara B. McKenzie

Authors
  1. Lara B. McKenzie
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  2. Erica Fowler
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  3. Kristin J. Roberts
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  4. Roxanne M. Kaercher
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lara B. McKenzie.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

The study was approved by the institutional review board at the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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McKenzie, L.B., Fowler, E., Roberts, K.J. et al. Child Passenger Safety in the Somali Communities of Columbus, Ohio. J Community Health 42, 221–227 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-016-0246-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-016-0246-y

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