Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To examine the characteristics of parents responding to a petition calling for greater efforts to ensure the safety of children as pedestrians and to contrast factors predictive of advocacy with risk factors for child pedestrian injury. SETTING: The Auckland region of New Zealand. METHODS: Parents participating in the Auckland Child Pedestrian Injury Study, a community based case-control study, were invited to support a series of recommendations based on the study results, by signing and returning a petition that was to be delivered to the New Zealand Minister for Transport. Characteristics of petitioners were determined by linking their petition responses to the study questionnaires using an unique identifier. The characteristics of petitioners and nonpetitioners were summarised using odds ratios. RESULTS: 31% of parents signed and returned the petition; 19% were parents of cases and 36% were parents of controls. The sociodemographic groups whose children were at the lowest risk of pedestrian injury were the most likely to return the petition. Children in the most disadvantaged socioeconomic group and children of Pacific Island parents were at greatest risk of injury but the parents of these children were the least likely to respond to the petition. CONCLUSIONS: The frequency with which parents advocate for child safety varies inversely with the need for it. Models of health promotion based on community ownership and empowerment alone are unlikely to address the steep socioeconomic gradients in childhood injury mortality.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Hart J. T. The inverse care law. Lancet. 1971 Feb 27;1(7696):405–412. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(71)92410-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kjemtrup K., Herrstedt L. Speed management and traffic calming in urban areas in Europe: a historical view. Accid Anal Prev. 1992 Feb;24(1):57–65. doi: 10.1016/0001-4575(92)90072-q. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Petersen A. R. Community development in health promotion: empowerment or regulation? Aust J Public Health. 1994 Jun;18(2):213–217. doi: 10.1111/j.1753-6405.1994.tb00230.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Pless I. B., Verreault R., Arsenault L., Frappier J. Y., Stulginskas J. The epidemiology of road accidents in childhood. Am J Public Health. 1987 Mar;77(3):358–360. doi: 10.2105/ajph.77.3.358. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Roberts I., Ashton T., Dunn R., Lee-Joe T. Preventing child pedestrian injury: pedestrian education or traffic calming? Aust J Public Health. 1994 Jun;18(2):209–212. doi: 10.1111/j.1753-6405.1994.tb00228.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Roberts I., Norton R., Jackson R., Dunn R., Hassall I. Effect of environmental factors on risk of injury of child pedestrians by motor vehicles: a case-control study. BMJ. 1995 Jan 14;310(6972):91–94. doi: 10.1136/bmj.310.6972.91. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]