Motor Vehicle Crash Prevention Research Articles

The Importance of Screening for Sleep Disordered Breathing in the Prevention of Motor Vehicle Crashes: The Toon Health Study

The Importance of Screening for Sleep Disordered Breathing in the Prevention of Motor Vehicle Crashes: The Toon Health Study

Newspaper media reporting of motor vehicle crashes in Singapore: an opportunity lost for injury prevention education?

Newspaper media advocacy can help steer public attention away from motor vehicle crash (MVC) injuries as a personal problem to that of a social and public health issue. If used properly, newspaper media is potentially a powerful mass educator on MVC prevention. However, there is often a conflict of interest in which newspapers, in an attempt to boost readership and revenue, may over-emphasize and sensationalize the human-interest aspect of an MVC story. The aim of this study is to examine newspaper articles of MVCs in Singapore to assess how our newspaper media coverage portray MVCs and identify factors that mitigate injury and educate the public on injury prevention measures. Details of the MVC were extracted from 12 months of newspaper coverage in Singapore. Two independent coders were used to establish inter-rater reliability. From 1 January to 31 December 2007, 201 articles about MVCs were published. About 74.1% of articles assigned blame to a particular road user, negligence on either road user was implied in 56.7% of articles, and road safety messages were mentioned in 8% of the articles. The mainstream communication tone used was positive for law enforcement (71.1%) and neutral towards injury prevention or road safety messages (89.1%). Newspaper media reporting of MVCs in Singapore generally does not include injury prevention messages or highlight injury-mitigating measures. This is a lost opportunity for public education. Collaboration between public health practitioners and newspaper media is required to address this issue.

Interventions to Prevent Adolescent Motor Vehicle Crashes

Adolescent injury and death from motor vehicle crashes continues to be a pressing public health concern. The adolescent age group present a unique challenge in terms of prevention because of their age and thought processes. Over the years, many intervention strategies have emerged to target prevention of motor vehicle crashes in this age group. Some have been more successful than others. When implementing intervention programs for their own communities, nurses must be aware of information regarding adolescent injury prevention in the literature. Reality-based prevention programs appear to be a promising intervention strategy to target motor vehicle crash prevention in adolescents.

Behavioral and Social Science Contributions to Preventing Teen Motor Crashes: Systems Integrative and Interdisciplinary Approaches

The National Institutes of Health's (NIH's) Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research (OBSSR) is located within NIH's Office of the Director. Stimulating and integrating behavioral and social science research within NIH's health research enterprise for understanding of disease etiology, treatment, and prevention to be improved and health behaviors, lifestyles, and communities to be promoted is OBSSR's mission. In regard to the issue of motor vehicle collisions involving teenage drivers, OBSSR supports an integrated approach in which a variety of organizations and disciplines are represented. Discussion of the possible roles of behavioral and social science in prevention of motor vehicle crashes involving teenage drivers is presented by the authors.

A short course on motor vehicle injury for emergency medicine residents

Despite growing interest and activity by emergency physicians in injury prevention, we found no reports of any attempts to include injury control concepts in emergency medicine residency training. An existing course for graduate level public health students on motor vehicle injury was modified for emergency medicine residents, presented as a one-day short course, and evaluated. The objective of the course was to provide information regarding the dynamics and prevention of motor vehicle crashes. An equally important second objective was to demonstrate to the residents the need for emergency physicians as part of the injury control research team. The content of the course was based on the conceptual model in which a motor vehicle crash is analyzed in terms of precrash, crash, and post-crash factors. The correlation between the mechanism of injury and the types of injuries experienced was of particular interest. A one-day format was found to be too concentrated. The incorporation of injury prevention concepts and research methods into the grand rounds, journal club, and conferences of the emergency medicine residency is recommended. Educational objectives and practical suggestions for implementation are provided. A comprehensive reading list is available on request.