Effectiveness of feedback and education in an employment based seat belt program

A 6 week employment based seat belt program, without incentives,was evaluated to determine if it would increase the seat beltuse of employees in an area with seat belt legislation. Theprogram included obtrusive seat belt use monitoring, a feedbacksign, an educational presentation, displays, and supportivememos from management. Seat belt use observations were madeon a daily basis at the program site and at a control site fora 3 week baseline period, during the program, and at 2 weekintervals for 6 weeks following the conclusion of the program.Analysis of the seat belt data indicated that a statisticallyreliable increase in the seat belt use of drivers and passengersoccurred as a result of the program. Belt use for drivers increasedfrom 65 to 82%, and for passengers from 46 to 76%. A declinein belt use was observed during the follow-up period, but itremained higher than during the baseline period. Results fromquestionnaires distributed to employees before and after theprogram indicated that attitudes towards seat belts changedvery little. The results demonstrated that a seat belt program,conducted in the work place without incentives, can significantlyincrease seat belt use. Implications of the findings for futureresearch are discussed.