Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention
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To estimate the effectiveness of booster seats and of seatbelts in reducing the risk of child death during traffic collisions and to examine possible effect modification by various collision and vehicle characteristics. ⋯ Seatbelts, used with or without booster seats, are highly effective in preventing death among motor vehicle occupants aged 4-8 years. Booster seats do not appear to improve the performance of seatbelts with respect to preventing death (risk ratio 0.92, 95% CI 0.79 to 1.08, comparing seatbelts with boosters to seatbelts alone), but because several studies have found that booster seats reduce non-fatal injury severity, clinicians and injury prevention specialists should continue to recommend the use of boosters to parents of young children.
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To examine the risk factors and precipitating circumstances associated with firearm suicide. ⋯ These findings challenge the conventional view that those who are severely depressed and suicidal are prone to highly lethal methods, such as firearms. Rather, firearms users may be reacting to acute situations.
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A case-control study examined, primarily, the association between booster seat laws and fatalities among children in frontal collisions and, secondarily, the association between booster seat laws and reported restraint use, and restraint use and child fatalities. Children who died in a crash in the US were cases, and children who survived a fatal crash were controls. ⋯ They were also more likely to be restrained (adjusted OR 1.59; 95% CI 1.21 to 2.09) and were more likely to be correctly restrained (adjusted OR 4.44; 95% CI 3.18 to 6.20). It is concluded that booster seat laws are associated with a decrease in child deaths and an increase in correct restraint use among children involved in a fatal crash in the USA.