Magazine information on safety belt use for pregnant women and young children

Child restraint orientation: Accuracy of information on Japanese websites

BACKGROUND

Child restraints provide maximum protection when used appropriately, but seat orientation (rear- or forward-facing) according to child development is often misunderstood, and the information provided can be inaccurate. This study examined the accuracy of information in Japanese on seat orientation found on the Internet.

METHODS

We searched websites in Japanese on Google regarding information on recommended seat orientation for young children and examined the first 50 sites based on the search rankings for the criteria on when to allow children to ride in forward-facing seats.

RESULTS

None of the examined websites included information that was consistent with the recommendation of the Japan Pediatric Society (i.e. age must be at least 1 year old and weight, at least 10 kg). The most common mistake was that weight alone could determine timing.

CONCLUSIONS

More vigorous efforts are needed to disseminate evidence-based information about seat orientation to protect child passengers.

Topics and sources of memorable breast cancer messages and their impact on prevention and detection behaviors

Often, people are able to recall a message on a particular topic for a long period of time. These memorable messages have the ability to influence behavior when they are recalled from memory long after initial exposure. Knowing the topics and sources of the messages that are remembered about breast cancer can improve the efficacy of future breast cancer outreach. To this end, 359 women completed an online survey about memorable breast cancer messages. Most women (60%) recalled a memorable message, described it, identified its source, and noted whether it had resulted in prevention or detection behaviors. Four categories of message topics emerged: early detection (37.3%), awareness (30.9%), treatment (25.8%), and prevention (6%). Furthermore, five categories of sources of these memorable messages were found: media (35.5%), friends (22.2%), family (21.6%), medical professionals (15.2%), and others (5.5%). The media were a major source of all four topics of messages, although family members, friends, and the medical community were major sources for particular message topics as well. Memorable messages originating from medical professionals were substantially more likely to motivate detection behaviors than prevention behaviors. This research demonstrates that message topic and source both play roles in determining message recall as well as in determining how memorable messages impacted behavior.