BACKGROUND: Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of injury and death among children in the United States, as well as in the state of Vermont. Proper use of car seats, booster seats, and seatbelts, depending on the child’s age, weight, and height, has been proven the most effective method for preventing these injuries and deaths. The state of Vermont has set reducing the number of non-fatal motor vehicle crash-related injuries as one of its Healthy Vermonters 2020 goals. Reducing the rate of child restraint misuse is a performance measure related to this goal, indicating its status as a priority for the Health Department.
METHODS: The pre-hospital Statewide Incident Reporting Network (SIREN) was evaluated as a child passenger safety surveillance system following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Updated Guidelines for Evaluating Public Health Surveillance Systems. Injury to children under the age of 18, related to a motor vehicle crash, was used to assess surveillance system attributes such as acceptability, stability, timeliness, and sensitivity. Comparison data was obtained from Vermont’s Uniform Hospital Discharge Dataset. All analyses were completed using SAS software version 9.4.
RESULTS: In the year 2014, SIREN detected 366 child passenger safety-related incidents in the state of Vermont, as compared to 494 that were reported in the hospital discharge/emergency department (ED) data. SIREN electronic patient care reports are submitted to the system within one business day of an incident occurring, and are therefore quite timely. All ambulance agencies in Vermont are now 100% compliant with the reporting requirement, although data completion and accuracy varies. The system is quite stable, with only limited times when it is unavailable. SIREN contains additional information such as safety equipment use and airbag deployment, which is not present in the hospital discharge/ED data that is useful in terms of child passenger safety surveillance.
CONCLUSIONS: While not as sensitive as hospital discharge/ED data, SIREN is still a valuable and timely source of child passenger safety-related information for the state of Vermont. Following the transition to SIREN Elite, data completion will be improved, increasing SIREN’s injury surveillance capabilities. SIREN should continue to be used as a supplemental data source for child passenger safety surveillance.