The relationship between the injury severity based on injury severity score and child seating position in the vehicle

The aim was to determine the relationship between the severity of the score and the child sitting position in the vehicle. In this retrospective cohort study, the severity score was obtained from HIS. After entering the data into STATA/SE version 14, univariate regression models were used to identify the potential confounding variables. Poisson regression estimators were applied to depict the relationship between safety devices, seating position of the child, and the severity indices. Out of 257 child occupants under 6 years, only 4.1% of the children used child seats and 7.7% used seat belts. There was a statistically significant positive relationship between ISS and middle rear seat (P = 0.026) and left rear seat (P = 0.000). A positive relationship existed between ISS and the right rear seat. Hospitalization of children sitting on the middle rear seat was longer than the others. The right rear seat was found to be the safest seat for children. The pattern of child accidents is different in the study region compared to other places. Local interventions should be implemented using evidences obtained from road traffic accidents. Thus, the governments should explore new strategies to increase the use of child seats by parents.