2 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
Motor vehicle crashes cause the death of an American child every 3 hours, more than any other cause. When installed correctly, car seats reduce risk of serious injury and death to infants and young children. Unfortunately, a large portion of child restraints is installed incorrectly. A network of trained technicians work across the country to assist parents in achieving correct use of child restraints through scheduled "car seat checks," where technicians work with parents to install restraints in their vehicles. Car seat checks are effective in reducing errors in child restraint installations. However, the services are highly underutilized. The present study evaluates use of interactive virtual presence technology (also called interactive merged reality) to remotely assist parents to install child restraints correctly into their vehicles. Building from small pilot studies on the topic, the investigators will conduct a randomized non-inferiority trial to evaluate whether parents who install child restraints while communicating with a remote expert technician via interactive virtual presence achieve installations and learning that are not inferior in their safety to parents who install restraints live with a remote technician onsite. The investigators will recruit 1476 parents at 7 locations nationwide and randomly assign consenting parents to install their child restraint either via interactive virtual presence or with a live technician. The correctness of installation safety will be assessed using objective checklists, both following installation and again four months later. The investigators aim to demonstrate that child restraint installation is accurate (\>90% correct) when conducted remotely via interactive virtual presence, that such installations are not inferior to the accuracy of installation with a live on-site expert, and that parents learn and retain information about correct child restraint installation.
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.