Volume 30 Number 12
December 2009
www.aapnews.org
RESEARCH UPDATE
Project Aims to Promote Safe Driving by Teens
from the AAP Department of Research
A new $1.3 million project from the AAP Pediatric Research in Office Settings (PROS) network seeks to test a leading-edge approach in the offices of primary care providers (PCPs) to promote parent-teen-driving agreements and safe driving.
The three-year project, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will adapt an evidence-based program called Checkpoints for promotion by PCPs, leading to better parental monitoring of teen driving. Providing anticipatory guidance on teen driving safety is a key recommendation of the AAP policy statement, TheTeen Driver
(Pediatrics. 2006;118:2570-2581).
Under the leadership of Jean T. Shope, MSPH, PhD, of the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute, and Joseph O'Neil, M.D., M.P.H., of Riley Children's Hospital of Indianapolis, the project will include a brief intervention by PCPs with follow-up over the Internet, including an interactive parent-teen driver agreement.
During the first year of the study, a PCP training program will be developed to fit with the Web-based Checkpoints program. In the second year, a pilot test of the PCP training and the intervention program will be conducted in a small number of physician practices. Changes to the PCP training, intervention and Web site will be made based on test results and feedback. A larger sample of PCPs subsequently will be recruited to participate in the full scale study, with participating PCPs trained to conduct the refined brief in-office intervention, including a streamlined referral of parents to the Checkpoints Web program.
Teendriving: livesinthebalance
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for U.S. teens, accounting for more than one in three deaths in this age group. Among teen drivers, those at especially high risk for motor vehicle crashes are:
- Males: In 2005, the motor vehicle death rate for male drivers and passengers ages 16 to 19 was more than one and a half times that of their female counterparts.1
- Teens driving with teen passengers: The presence of teen passengers increases the crash risk of unsupervised teen drivers. This risk increases with the number of teen passengers.2
- Newly licensed teens: Crash risk is particularly high during the first year that teenagers are eligible to drive.3
- Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System, 2009. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars.
- Chen L, et al. JAMA. 2000;283:1578-1582.
- Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Arlington, Va. Fatality Facts: Teenagers 2005.
Measures of intervention success with parents will include:
- dissemination: reach (hearing the PCP message), exposure (going to the Web site), exploration (viewing the materials) and access (downloading the materials), and
- implementation: initiation (making the agreement), adoption (signing the agreement) and maintenance (using the agreement).
Translation effectiveness will be determined by the PCPsí success in getting parents to visit the Web site, amount and type of Web site usage, target behavior involvement and costs.
Practices will be recruited through PROS and the Electronic Primary Care Research Network of family medicine practitioners. Participating practice staff and PCPs will be trained to identify eligible families, deliver the brief intervention, assist families in accessing the Checkpoints Web program, and implement promotional and reminder activities. Variation in adoption, implementation and institutionalization of the PCP/Checkpoints Web program will be measured at three levels (practices, individual PCPs and individual parents) as described above. The economic feasibility of the intervention for all parties will be assessed as well.
Collaboration with the AAP Committee on Injury, Violence and Poison Prevention will facilitate rapid translation of study findings into AAP policy and pediatric practice.
"This is not just about promoting teen driving agreements; this is about saving lives," said PROS Director PROS Richard C. "Mort" Wasserman, MD, FAAP of its other research. For more information, see the coupon below.
Core funding for PROS is provided by the Academy and the Health Resources and Services Administration Maternal and Child Health Bureau.
Join AAP practitioners around the country in generating knowledge about the best ways to care for children. Pediatric Research in Office Settings (PROS) is looking for pediatricians to help develop and carry out primary care research in the practice setting. Any pediatric practice or clinic with at least one AAP member is eligible to join PROS. For information on being part of this innovative AAP research effort, e-mail pros@aap.org, fill out and fax this coupon to (847) 434-8910, or mail to:
PROS, American Academy of Pediatrics
141 Northwest Point Blvd. ï Elk Grove Village, IL 60007
Yes! I'd like to be involved with PROS research.
Name ________________________________________
Degree _______________________________________
Address ______________________________________
City ____________________ State ____ ZIP ________
Phone _____________ Fax _______________________
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AAP News December 2009
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