New studies from researchers at Seattle Children’s Hospital and the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center have found that the use of life jackets among adults can significantly influence whether kids wear them too, and help prevent half of boating-related deaths. Yet use of life jackets by adults on boats remains low, researchers say.
About 85 percent of recreational boating-related drowning victims in the United States in 2012 did not wear a life jacket, but researchers also found that that teens were 20 times more likely to wear a life jacket if at least one adult was wearing a life jacket. This fact is especially timely with Memorial Day weekend fast approaching, as open-water drowning remains an important public health problem in the U.S., and impacts many adults as well as children.
To learn more about the studies, please visit: http://www.seattlechildrens.org/media/press-detail.aspx?id=536028
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Life Jackets for Children and Teens
