OBJECTIVES: to investigate the frequency of use of the family car for transportation of children to day-care centers in the city of Maringá, State of Paraná, Brazil. METHODS: the city was divided into six strata according to social and occupational characteristics and the day care-center attended. Utilizing short interviews with day-care centers' coordinators it was measured the frequency of use of car for transportation of children to day-care centers to each stratum. RESULTS: 62.4% of the families that use cars for transporting children to day-care centers used 32 of the day-care centers and fell into four of the demographic strata. CONCLUSIONS: the four strata that contain the majority of car users will be explored by future investigation to determine the frequency of use of the child car seat.
Transportation; Automobiles; Child; Child car seat
