Objective: To evaluate the use before and after intervention of Child Restraint Devices (CRD's) and seat belts of children and drivers of families who had been seen in a children's hospital clinic setting. A pediatric resident sponsored Car Seat/Seat Belt Display booth in the outpatient clinic setting was the intervention.

Design: A lay volunteer randomly selected families and administered a verbal formal survey regarding CRD and safety belt use in the children and adults. Over one month, a Pediatric Resident Display Booth was located at the cashier, and included multiple posters promoting CRD use and example devices. Residents trained in CRD use asked passing families to fill out a questionnaire which was “graded” and a prize was the incentive for participation. The residents then gave the correct answers to the quiz, answered questions, and directed the parents to a distribution site for the CRD's if the parents needed one. Observers, blinded to the answers of the survey, were located in the parking deck where they observed the parents' actual behavior. The observed behavior was later compared to actual behavior. A base line percentage of CRD and seat belt use was obtained before the resident intervention, and it was compared to the percentage obtained during intervention. Chi-squared and Fisher's exact test were used to compare proportions.

Results: There were 207 families with 234 children in the baseline group, and 108 families with 131 children in the intervention group. The number of children under 12 seated correctly in the back seat was 77% in the baseline group and 80% in the intervention group (p = 0.26). Seat belt usage of children older than 5 years was 56% in the baseline and 48% in the intervention group (p=0.28). CRD use in children less than 5 years old was 85% in the baseline group, and 86% in the intervention group. Of the children less than 1 years old, 44% of the baseline group were correctly seated rear-facing and 21% of those in the intervention group were seated rear-facing

(p=0.20). Seat belt use of the parents was 73% in the baseline group and 70% in the intervention group.

Conclusion: An Information Both sponsored by the pediatric residents did not have a statistically significant effect on the use of CRD's and safety belts in the population leaving the Children's Parking Deck after being seen in The Children's Hospital outpatient area. Further studies are required to investigate the usefulness of other forms of intervention.