Introduction: The behaviour of parents in ensuring car passenger safety for their children is associated with socio-economic (SE) status of the family; however, the influence of parental education has rarely been researched and the findings are contradictory. The aim of the study was to clarify whether parental education influences the use of a child car seat during short rides.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out in outpatient clinics for children's healthcare across Slovenia. 904 parents of 3-year-old children participated in the study; the response rate was 95.9%. A self-administered questionnaire was used. A binary multiple logistic regression was applied to assess the association between parental unsafe behaviour as dependent variable, and education and other SE factors as independent variables.
Results: 14.6% of parents did not use a child car seat during short rides. Families where mother had low or college education had higher odds of the non-use of a child car seat than families where mother had a university education. Single-parent families and those who lived in areas with low or medium SE status also had higher odds of the non-use of a child car seat.
Conclusions: Low educational attainment influences parents' behaviour regarding the non-use of a child car seat. Low parental education is not the only risk factor since some highly educated parents also have high odds of unsafe behaviour. All parents should therefore be included in individually tailored safety counselling programmes. SE inequalities could be further reduced with provision of free child car seats for eligible families.
Uvod: Vedenje starševpri zagotavljanju varnosti otrok v avtomobilu je povezano s socialno-ekonomskim (S-E) položajem družine, vendar je bil vpliv izobrazbe staršev proučevan redko, ugotovitve pa so si nasprotujoče. Namen raziskave je bil razjasniti, ali izobrazba staršev vpliva na uporabo otroškega avtomobilskega sedeža.
Metode: Izvedena je bila presečna raziskava vambulantah zdravstvenega varstva otrok po Sloveniji. Sodelovali so 904 starši triletnikov, odzivnost je bila 95,9-odstotna. Uporabljen je bil vprašalnik za samoizpolnjevanje. Za oceno povezanosti neuporabe otroskega avtomobilskega sedeža kot odvisne spremenljivke ter izobrazbe in drugih S-E dejavnikov kot neodvisnih spremenljivk je bila izvedena binarna multipla logistična regresija.
Rezultati: Starši niso uporabljali avtomobilskega sedeža na kratkih vožnjah v 14,6% primerov. Večje obete za neuporabo sedeža so imeli v družinah z nizko in višje (1. stopnja) izobraženo materjo vprimerjavi z družinami z univerzitetno (2. stopnja) izobraženo materjo, pa tudi v enostarševskih družinah ter na območjih bivanja z nizkim in srednjim S-E položajem.
Zaključki: Nizka izobrazba staršev vpliva na njihovo odločitev, da bodo opustili uporabo otroškega avtomobilskega sedeža na kratkih vožnjah. Vendar nizka izobrazba ni edini dejavnik tveganja, saj imajo visoke obete za opustitev varnostnega ukrepa tudi nekateri visoko izobraženi starši. Zato bi bilo treba za vse starše uvesti individualno prilagojeno svetovanje o varnosti otrok v avtomobilu. Neenakosti, pogojene s S-E položajem, pa bi lahko dodatno zmanjšali z brezplačnimi otroškimi avtomobilskimi sedeži za socialno šibke družine.
Keywords: child restraint systems; educational status; preschool children; socioeconomic factors.