NCT04238247

Tiny Cargo, Big Deal! An ED-Based Study of Child Passenger Safety Behaviors

Tiny Cargo, Big Deal! An Adaptive ED-Based eHealth Intervention to Promote Correct and Consistent Size-Appropriate Child Passenger Safety Behaviors and Reduce Disparities

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 513 (actual)
• Sponsor: Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 6 Months – 10 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This study involves an emergency department (ED)-based intervention utilizing Motivational Interviewing (MI) techniques and patient-centered eHealth materials (e.g., a tailored, mobile-friendly website and text messages) to promote the correct and consistent use of size-appropriate child passenger restraints (car seats, booster seats, and seat belts). This study is designed as an adaptive randomized controlled trial, recruiting English and Spanish speaking caregivers of children 6 months to 10 years old.

Detailed description

Motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) remain the leading cause of unintentional injury deaths among children in the United States (U.S.) and racial/ethnic minority children are disproportionately impacted as suboptimal child passenger safety behaviors are more prevalent in some communities. Existing universal approaches to promote child passenger safety have fallen short of ensuring that all child passengers are correctly using size-appropriate child passenger restraints according to guidelines published by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Precision prevention programs are urgently needed to improve child passenger safety behaviors among caregivers who have not been responsive to guidelines, laws, and public education campaigns. The proposed research will test the efficacy of Tiny Cargo, Big Deal/Abróchame Bien, Cuídame Bien (TCBD/ABCB), a bilingual emergency department (ED)-based precision prevention intervention grounded in Self-Determination Theory. TCBD/ABCB integrates personalized counseling based on principles of motivational interviewing (MI) and eHealth components including a tailored educational mobile-friendly website "site" and short message service (SMS) communications with the goal of improving child passenger safety. We hypothesize that by providing tailored child passenger safety education and personalized skills for restraint use in a manner that supports autonomous motivation the TCBD/ABCB intervention will be more efficacious than universal approaches (laws/guidelines) for realizing correct use of size-appropriate child passenger restraints.

Conditions

• Accident, Traffic

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Tiny Cargo, Big Deal/Abróchame Bien, Cuídame Bien (TCBD/ABCB) Basic Intervention	A bilingual emergency department (ED)-based precision prevention intervention grounded in Self-Determination Theory. The Basic TCBD/ABCB intervention integrates one personalized counseling session based on principles of motivational interviewing (MI) and eHealth components including a tailored mobile-friendly educational website and short message service (SMS) text message communications with the goal of improving child passenger safety. Participants receive monthly text message requests to submit photographs depicting the child as they usually travel. Feedback is provided via text message to correct any observed errors or misuse. Tailored informational and motivational text messages are sent twice each month.
BEHAVIORAL	Tiny Cargo, Big Deal/Abróchame Bien, Cuídame Bien (TCBD/ABCB) Enhanced Intervention	The Enhanced TCBD/ABCB Intervention includes a second motivational interviewing session. Basic Intervention text messages continue with an additional 1-2 tailored text messages per month.

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-02-05
• Primary completion: 2023-09-29
• Completion: 2023-10-31
• First posted: 2020-01-23
• Last updated: 2026-04-15
• Results posted: 2025-05-14

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States