A few years ago there was a study that said kids were safer in a harness until 5....

emandbri

Well-known member
And after that there was no statisical advantage to keeping a child in a harness. I have tried to find the study and haven't had any luck.

I know I posted about it because I was curious if there were just 5 year olds in cars less because they started kindergarten so they would the get in less crashes. Folks responded that that wasn't the case but I don't recall why. I would very much like to find into on this study again, if anyone knows of it that would be great.

Thanks!
 
ADS

Sum1Else

Senior Community Member
PLEASE PLEASE let me know if you find this study! Sometimes I don't get on here for a few weeks. I think you have my e-mail from the CPSP Yahoo group. ;) Thanks!
 

Wineaux

New member
I think I remember AdventureDad posting that one. It was a Swedish study. This is the reason that the Swede's RF to 4-5'ish, and then go straight to a booster.
 

wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
Massively. If a child cannot sit properly they need a harness. However, the Swedish study wouldn't have addressed that as they have very very few harnessed forward facing seats.

Wendy
 

carseatcoach

Carseat Crankypants
From the first page of the study: "Please note that forward-facing CRS for ages 1-4 with integrated child harness are very rare in Sweden, and therefore not included in this study."

There is NO DATA on forward-facing harnessed seats, only rear-facing, booster, and seatbelt. I do not know how anyone drew any conclusions about the relative safety of booster vs. harness when it was not studied.
 

wendytthomas

Admin - CPST Instructor
Staff member
What the study states is that children at the young end of transitional times were more at risk of head and neck injuries, not that a harness was better. But there was a better outcome in a booster seat for six year olds than five year olds. Swedes of course would keep the child rear facing until six years old. We have no choice but to use a forward facing harness right now.

Wendy
 

twinsmom

New member
From the first page of the study: "Please note that forward-facing CRS for ages 1-4 with integrated child harness are very rare in Sweden, and therefore not included in this study."

There is NO DATA on forward-facing harnessed seats, only rear-facing, booster, and seatbelt. I do not know how anyone drew any conclusions about the relative safety of booster vs. harness when it was not studied.

I did read a Swedish study at some point that did compare harness to booster FF and that's where they concluded the load force on the neck was worse in the harness. I can't remember where I read it, but I'll look around.
 

triscuitsmom

New member
I'm subbing to this... with the weight limits going up on the seats available the possibilty could come in the future where there are kids that hit 5-6 rearfacing more readily (though I do understand that even the 40-45 pound limits on the seats we currently have right now will be outgrown by height by some kids before the weight limit is hit) and could go into boosters skipping a forward facing harness if that was safer. I'm interested to know what info on that exists :thumbsup:
 

Wineaux

New member
I did read a Swedish study at some point that did compare harness to booster FF and that's where they concluded the load force on the neck was worse in the harness. I can't remember where I read it, but I'll look around.

That's the one AdventureDad posted! It's here somewhere...
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
"As can be seen in Figure 9, there is a
noticeable increase in MAIS 2+ injury rate if the
growing child switches from rearward-facing to
a forward-facing booster at around 3 years of
age. The injuries to the 2-4 year-olds in boosters
are mainly head injuries. Two children in frontal
impacts sustained spine fractures; one of them a
combination of fatal head and neck injuries. The
injury rate in a booster decreases somewhat
when the child grows older. At the switch to the
adult belt only, between age 7 and 10, there is a
remarkable increase in injury rate."

No, it sure doesn't say harnessing is safer, but I don't think it's an unreasonable conclusion to say that head injury rates are lower in boostered kids over age 5, no matter what they are compared to.

It's going to be a loooong time before enough kids are harnessed to much older ages so that we can compare them to boostered kids in a head to head US comparison.
 

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