{"id":16408,"date":"2018-12-07T10:43:50","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T15:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.yorku.ca\/?p=12899"},"modified":"2018-12-07T10:43:50","modified_gmt":"2018-12-07T15:43:50","slug":"study-of-child-and-youth-injuries-points-to-need-for-standardized-road-traffic-policies-across-canada-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/news\/2018\/12\/07\/study-of-child-and-youth-injuries-points-to-need-for-standardized-road-traffic-policies-across-canada-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Study of child and youth injuries points to need for standardized road traffic policies across Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Graduated driver licensing and booster seat legislation just the start<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

TORONTO<\/strong>, December 7, 2018 \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Provinces with road traffic safety policies that are evidence-based had lower injury-related hospitalizations and deaths among children and youth, according to a new study by researchers at York University.<\/p>\n

The national study, published in the journal BioMedCentral<\/a>, looked at three indicators: injury-hospitalization, injury-death and the road traffic safety policies. \u00a0Professor Alison Macpherson<\/a> in York University\u2019s School of Kinesiology & Health Science, Faculty of Health, and her former Ph.D. student Liraz Fridman, examined policies related to the safety of vehicle occupants, cyclists, and pedestrians, and focussed in on specific criteria such as graduated driver licensing,\u00a0 bicycle helmet legislation, pedestrian safety laws, and booster seat legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not saying there\u2019s a causal relationship. We are saying that policy is one indicator that may be playing a role in the reduction of injury over time,\u201d says Fridman, lead author of the study. \u201cWe found that provinces with stronger evidence-based policies in place are more likely to have lower rates of injury.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is the first Canadian study to compare data on hospitalizations and deaths alongside provincial policies.<\/p>\n

\"driver<\/p>\n

Macpherson and her team looked at a national database from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) and compared provinces\u2019 road traffic hospitalizations over a seven-year period, from Jan. 1, 2006 to Dec. 31, 2012. Children and youth (0\u201319 years) who were hospitalized after sustaining a road traffic-related injury were included in the study, for all provinces except Quebec, which is not required to report this data. Data on the number of transport-related childhood deaths was used to analyze the death rate during the same period.<\/p>\n

The mortality rate from all road traffic-related injuries in Canada (excluding Quebec) was 4.5 deaths per 100,000 children\/youth between 2006 and 2012. The highest mortality rate was 10.99 per 100,000 population in Saskatchewan and the lowest rate was 3.09 per 100,000 in Ontario.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur study suggested that evidence-based policies and strategies such as reduced speed limits in residential and school zones across provinces may be one effective way to reduce road traffic injuries,\u201d says Macpherson, senior author of the study. \u201cThese findings also suggest that graduated driver licensing may be an important injury prevention policy that has the potential to reduce injury-related deaths.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She said the study provides evidence to support the need for booster seat legislation and other road safety policies to be consistent across provinces.<\/p>\n

Study highlights include:<\/p>\n