Related Experiment Videos
Seat-belt use by trauma center employees before and after a safety campaign
Karen E Scheltema1, Susan M Brost, Geraldine A Skager
1Research and Education, Health East Care System, St Paul, MN 55104-3727, USA. kschelte@mninter.net
Objectives:
To determine whether employees of a regional trauma center wore seat belts any more often than did visitors to the medical center and residents of the state. To demonstrate whether an intensive safety campaign would improve seat-belt compliance among trauma center employees. To determine the duration of improvement.
Methods:
Hospital employees and visitors were observed as they exited the medical center's parking ramps over a 3-month period.
Results:
After a hospital-wide seat-belt campaign, employee compliance rose by 7.5%, to 81.5% at 14 days, but fell back to preintervention levels at one month (76.7%) and 3 months (77%) after the intervention.
Conclusions:
An intensive seat-belt safety campaign resulted in only modest and transient improvement in the rate of seat-belt use.