The prevalence of seatbelt use among pediatric hospital workers

Eighteen percent of drivers do not consistently wear their seatbelts when driving. The purpose of this article is to report the problem of noncompliance with seatbelt use among health care workers at a Level I pediatric trauma center in the midwest United States with evidence from a non-experimental, observational study. Results showed that 84% (n=3,641) of drivers and 73% (n=113) of passengers wore their seatbelts. A significant correlation was found between driver seatbelt use and passenger seatbelt use (p=.272, p<.001). Drivers from primary seatbelt legislation states wore their seatbelts significantly more often than drivers from the secondary seatbelt legislation state, χ(1)=0.913, p=.012. Non-compliance with seatbelt use among pediatric health care workers is a problem equal to that of the general population. It may be necessary to adopt and enforce mandatory seatbelt use policies at the organizational level to increase seatbelt use in this population of hospital workers.