Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention
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To estimate the effect of the 2005 Victorian mandatory personal flotation device (PFD) wearing regulations on PFD use by occupants of small (hull length ≤4.8 m) power recreational vessels. ⋯ The legislative intervention was successful in increasing PFD wearing in small vessels. However, visible enforcement and tougher penalties are needed to optimise compliance.
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Reducing vehicle speed is among the most effective road safety strategies. We assess how a new policy in Russia that eliminates fines for driving up to 20 km/h above the speed limit has affected the prevalence of speeding. We measured speeds periodically in 13 districts of two Russian regions during 2011-2013 and analysed the effect of the policy using difference-in-differences to control for seasonality. ⋯ Overall speeding increased significantly by 13 percentage points (pp, 95% CI 4 to 19). Speeding more than 10 km/h above the limit increased significantly by 10 pp (95% CI 2 to 12), and extreme speeding increased but not significantly (1.7 pp, 95% CI -1.1 to 4.5). Road traffic injuries will likely increase in Russia unless speeding fines are reinstated.
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Review Comparative Study
Comparing responsible and non-responsible drivers to assess determinants of road traffic collisions: time to standardise and revisit.
In 1994, Robertson and Drummer formalised the responsibility analysis as an alternative to case-control studies in the study of road traffic crashes. Our objective was to assess whether published responsibility studies respected standards defining adequate case-control studies. ⋯ Basic requirements of case-control studies are often not or not clearly met in responsibility studies. There is a need to revisit the method and to adapt existing publication standards to the way responsibility studies are reported.
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Observational Study
Effectiveness of the 2005 compulsory personal flotation device (PFD) wearing regulations in reducing drowning deaths among recreational boaters in Victoria, Australia.
To investigate whether the Victorian mandatory personal flotation device wearing regulations that came into effect on 1 December 2005 reduced drowning deaths among recreational boaters in Victoria, Australia. ⋯ These findings provide further support for the adoption of a regulatory approach to personal flotation device wearing to reduce drowning among recreational boaters.
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Determining the relationship between gun ownership levels and firearm homicide rates is critical to inform public health policy. Previous research has shown that state-level gun ownership, as measured by a widely used proxy, is positively associated with firearm homicide rates. A newly developed proxy measure that incorporates the hunting license rate in addition to the proportion of firearm suicides correlates more highly with state-level gun ownership. ⋯ Using state-specific data for the years 1981-2010, we modelled these rates as a function of gun ownership level, controlling for potential confounding factors. We used a negative binomial regression model and accounted for clustering of observations among states. We found that state-level gun ownership as measured by the new proxy, is significantly associated with firearm and total homicides but not with non-firearm homicides.