Abstract
A SIX-month study was under taken to measure the overall effect of health education programmes promoting seat- belt wearing in vehicles, in a defined population. The results indicated that despite co ordinated programmes involving press, television, radio, posters and personalised appeals through book marks, no sustained increase in the wearing rate either by drivers or passengers (front-seat) was achieved. Analysis of data from a postal questionnaire evaluat ing specific aspects of the health education programmes indicated a 50 per cent penetration by the programme within the popula tion. A significant finding from the questionnaire was that people who smoked were less likely to wear seat-belts (P<.001).
Smokers were also found to be less likely to be concerned with death as an outcome of non-seat belt wearing (P<.001) and were found to be signifi cantly against measures to intro duce legislation to enforce seat- belt wearing (P<.01).
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