The relationship between Brazilian legislation on the mandatory use of restraint devices for zero- to four-year-old children in vehicles and the numbers of injured and dead in traffic accidents

Abstract The scope of this article is to address the relationship between mandatory restraint devices and hospitalizations and deaths of zero- to four-year-old age children in traffic accidents in Brazil. Based on the mandatory use of child restraint devices for children up to 4 years of age under Brazilian traffic legislation in 2010, the authors apply data from the DataSUS and Denatran databases to analyze the time series of hospitalizations and deaths of zero- to four-year-old age children in traffic accidents between September 2005 and August 2015. Two cut-off sample periods were examined, the first consisting of an analysis from 2005 to 2015, which was subsequently subdivided into two samples, namely before and after the requirement. The results of both cut-off sample periods suggest that demands concerning the use of restraint devices led to decreased hospitalizations and deaths of children due to traffic accidents in the zero- to four-year-old age group, with a prevalence of decreased rates of hospitalization over deaths.摘要：本研究旨在厘清巴西0至4岁儿童交通事故相关住院与死亡情况和强制约束装置使用之间的关联。基于巴西2010年交通法规中针对4岁以下儿童强制使用儿童约束装置（child restraint devices）的规定，研究团队采用巴西国家卫生系统数据库（DataSUS）与巴西国家交通管理局数据库（Denatran）的数据，对2005年9月至2015年8月期间0至4岁儿童交通事故相关住院与死亡的时间序列展开分析。本研究设置两个截断样本区间：首个区间为2005年至2015年的整体分析，随后将该区间细分为法规实施前与法规实施后两个子样本。两个截断样本区间的分析结果均显示，强制使用约束装置的相关规定可降低0至4岁儿童交通事故相关的住院率与死亡率，且住院率的下降幅度显著高于死亡率。