Objectives: To describe routine injury prevention counseling; to observe ho
w three visit components - printed prompts. parent remarks, and parent beha
viors - affect such counseling to describe the process and content of discu
ssions about car seats as an example of routine injury prevention. Methods:
A total of 128 well-child visits of children under 7 months of age to a un
iversity pediatric clinic were videotaped (76% of eligible visits). Results
: Three injury topics were mentioned, on an average, per visit. Parents or
caregivers rarely introduced injury topics (5%). Physicians frequently intr
oduced those topics listed on age-specific prompting sheets (73%). Car seat
counseling typically began with a physician's question (82%). Most asked s
imply about ownership or use (93%). Few addressed difficult issues. such as
consistency of use (11%). Conclusions: Physicians bring up the injury topi
cs that are prompted. However, most discussion is superficial, Printed prom
pts that address counseling process as well as content might be beneficial.
(C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.