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Development of a US Child-Focused Motor Vehicle Crash Surveillance System: A Pilot Study
Dennis R Durbin1, Allison Curry, Rachel K Myers
1The Center for Injury Research and Prevention, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, The Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Insights
This pilot study shows it is feasible to collect child-specific data from motor vehicle crashes using supplemental surveys. Improving contact methods is key to increasing response rates for child occupant safety research.
Area of Science:
- Traffic Safety
- Pediatric Injury Prevention
- Data Collection Methodologies
Background:
- Existing motor vehicle crash (MVC) surveillance systems, like the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS), lack sufficient child-specific data.
- This data gap hinders effective policy development and prevention strategies for child occupants.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and evaluate methods for supplemental child-specific data collection.
- To assess the feasibility of identifying and surveying child occupants involved in MVCs using the NASS-GES program.
Main Methods:
- Procedures were created to identify police accident reports (PARs) involving child occupants.
- Supplemental data was collected via phone, web, and hard-copy surveys from parent drivers.
- Contact was initiated with 650 eligible parent drivers, resulting in 156 completed surveys (24.0% response rate).
Main Results:
- Telephone surveys yielded the highest response rate (41.0%), while web surveys had a low completion rate (6.1%).
- Agreement between supplemental survey data and PAR data was good to excellent.
- The study confirmed the feasibility of identifying cases for supplemental child-specific data collection through NASS-GES.
Conclusions:
- Supplemental data collection for child occupants in MVCs is feasible using NASS-GES identified cases.
- Enhancing contact procedures is crucial to optimize response rates and sustain a child-focused data collection system.
- Further efforts are needed to improve participant engagement for robust child injury prevention research.
Abstract:
Current motor vehicle crash (MVC) surveillance systems, in particular the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS), either do not contain sufficient numbers of children, or do not contain child-specific data needed to support policy and prevention efforts. The objective of this pilot study was to develop and evaluate methods that could be utilized for supplemental child-specific data collection on a sample of cases identified through the NASS-GES program. Procedures were developed to identify a sample of police accident reports (PARs) involving child occupants for supplemental collection of child-specific data via three survey modes: phone, web-based and hard-copy self administered. Contact was initiated with 650 eligible parent drivers and surveys were completed by 156 (24.0%). Response rates were highest for telephone-based surveys (41.0% of those initially contacted by phone). Surveys were completed via the web by only 6.1% of those invited to do so. Overall agreement between survey and PAR data was good to excellent. Results of this pilot study indicate that creating procedures to identify cases for supplemental child-specific data collection based on the NASS-GES system is feasible. In order to sustain a supplemental child-focused data collection system that relies on identification of cases from NASS-GES, efforts must be made to enhance contact procedures in order to optimize response rates.
