Population considerations
- Low seat belt use. Individuals of racial and ethnic backgrounds are less likely to wear seat belts, especially African American and Hispanic men.
- Lower rate of car ownership. Low car ownership should result in lower risk of death overall for a population, however, minorities still suffer higher rates of fatal car crashes when in cars.
- High incidence of alcohol-impaired driving. Slightly less than half of African Americans killed in automobile accidents had alcohol involved.
- High rates of pedestrian accidents. Most of these accidents occur in urban settings, where minorities are concentrated.
- Lower rate of child seat use. In many racial and ethnic minority communities, there is a lack of knowledge about the importance of child seats.
Hispanic
Population considerations
- Untraditional. The child safety seat use is not a part of the tradition and culture in the Hispanic community.
- Farm workers. Studies have shown that Hispanic farm workers may have learned to drive between the ages of 8 and 14 in Mexico and are less likely to buckle up than other drivers or use car seat
Strategies to address these considerations
- Medical practitioners can help increase seat belt usage by offering advice to patients and informing them of the safety advantages to using them. Questions on seat belt usage can be built into a patient’s history and then act as cues to discuss the importance of safety belts.
- Research shows previous attempts to improve racial and ethnic minority use of seat belts has not been culturally appropriate. Keeping this goal in mind to develop awareness campaigns is an important strategy.
- Targeting campaigns to racial and ethnic minorities in appropriate locations is key in informing the population of the need for safety belt and car seat use.