Improving Child Restraint Installation in Rural America Through Interactive Virtual Presence

The investigators will conduct a pre-post trial with 150 parents in rural South Central Montana. The study will recruit families to cooperating community locations (e.g., churches, public libraries) to participate in research evaluating the efficacy of parents installing restraints with guidance from a remotely-located technician using interactive virtual presence. Following informed consent procedures, parents will complete a brief survey on behaviors, attitudes, and perceptions about child safety and restraints while an on-site technician evaluates baseline safety of the restraint. Parents will then engage remotely using their personal smartphone with an off-site certified car seat technician, obtaining advice to install the child restraint properly via the HelpLightning interactive virtual presence app. Following the remote interaction, the on-site technician will again inspect the restraint using the validated checklist (and correct any errors prior to the participant leaving). The overall goal is to demonstrate installation of child restraints can be effectively accomplished to rural populations using interactive virtual presence. The study has 2 specific aims:

Specific Aim 1. Demonstrate technological and behavioral efficacy of providing instructions on child restraint installation remotely to rural populations. Demonstrate >95% of interactions proceed without technical problems, without reports of communication difficulty on either end of the exchange (the parent or the technician), and without interruption.

Specific Aim 2. Identify accuracy of child restraint installation by parents using instructions provided by a remotely-located certified technician via interactive virtual presence. Demonstrate installation in this manner achieves ≥90% accuracy across all aspects of child restraint installation. Demonstrate installation in this manner significantly reduces restraint installation errors.