The Impact of Car Seats: A New Prescription for Prevention?

Jan. 24, 2008— -- As a pediatrician, I am quite aware of the power of the prescription pad. I have written countless prescriptions for everything from diaper creams to inhalers to antibiotics, all in the name of improving the health and lives of children.

Last week, however, a highly regarded pediatric journal reported on a study for a new type of prescription that instantly caught my attention. Researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia concluded that we, as a country, could significantly affect the leading cause of death and acquired disability in childhood by simply writing a prescription -- one that I was certain few pediatricians have ever written.

The prescribed preventive measure? A car seat.

Now that's not to say that just about every pediatrician I know doesn't actively advocate for appropriate child restraint systems. Nor have the lifesaving benefits of child restraint systems been overlooked. We know well that car safety seats, which have been around for decades, reduce the likelihood of infant death by as much as 71 percent.

Nevertheless, vehicle crashes remain the No. 1 killer of kids and continue to cause lifelong, disabling injuries.

Worse yet, children from lower income families in the United States are disproportionately at risk, in part because of lack of access to car seats and to education regarding basic principles of child passenger safety. Before the results of this eye-opening new research were released, I could see no way for my pen and prescription pad to make a difference in this arena, no matter how poised and ready.

The solution? What the researchers at Children's Hospital proposed was a Medicaid prevention initiative, or Prescription for Car Seats.