Safety-Enhancing Motor Vehicle Child Safety Seat

Phase II - Safety-Enhancing Motor Vehicle Child Safety Seat

This study aims to assess the usability of a load leg design for caregivers who must install the child safety seat into a vehicle. The specific aims are to quantify any errors committed by the participants while installing the car seat and to assess participants' opinions on the car seat's load leg design.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Safety Issues; Motor Vehicle Injury
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Child restraint system with load leg feature

Detailed Description

A descriptive study will be conducted to determine whether human subjects are able to install the new feature of the prototype car seat correctly. Participants will be presented with the prototype car seat and a set of basic written instructions and labels to guide their installations. The percentage of participants who use the new feature and use it correctly will be reported. Any installation errors on other parts of the child seat (seat belt, lower anchors, top tether) will also be reported.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 50

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Ohio
    • Columbus, Ohio, United States, 43210
      • The Ohio State University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

The study population will be recruited from the Central Ohio area. Adults who meet the above criteria will be enrolled. Efforts will be made to include both males and females, across a range of ages, as well as minorities, as these groups' experiences around child seats may vary.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age 18 or older
• Be a care provider to a child who is up to 4 years of age
• Have installed a child safety seat in the last 2 years
• Able to lift and install a child safety seat into a vehicle
• English-speaking (because consent forms and explanation will be given in English)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Not meeting any of the above

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Overall Correct Use of Load Leg	Number of participants who correctly install the load leg independently, without needing any prompt to use it.	1 study visit, an average of 30 minutes
Attempt to Use Load Leg Without Prompting	Number of participants who noticed the load leg on their own, unfolded it from storage, and attempted to use it without being prompted by the researcher.	1 study visit, an average of 30 minutes
Correct Load Leg Length	Number of participants who set the load leg to the correct length, including those who needed prompted to use it	1 study visit, an average of 30 minutes
Correct Load Leg Angle	Number of participants who set the load leg to the correct angle, including those who needed prompted to use it.	1 study visit, an average of 30 minutes

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Correct Understanding of Load Leg's Purpose	The number of participants who correctly understood the purpose of the load leg by using words such as "security, safety, stability," etc. in their survey responses.	1 study visit, an average of 30 minutes
Participants Who Like Having the Load Leg	Number of participants who overall reported that they would like having the load leg feature on a child seat.	1 study visit, an average of 30 minutes

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Minnesota HealthSolutions
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Julie Mansfield, PhD, Ohio State University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 22, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 29, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): July 29, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 18, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 23, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): April 25, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 16, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 28, 2025
• Last Verified: March 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: child restraint system
• Other Study ID Numbers: MinnesotaHealthSolutions_LL

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: Data will be available upon request after publication of the results.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No