Voluntary seat belt use among U.S. drivers: geographic, socioeconomic and demographic variation

Although voluntary seat belt use rates are low, they are not uniform among different populations of U.S. drivers. In detailed analyses of 1982 data from 12 of the 19 cities in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's national seat belt survey and from three of the National Accident Sampling System regions, belt use rates varied greatly by geographic region, socioeconomic status and demographic group. These factors also moderated the effects of other factors such as car size and origin of manufacture. Nevertheless, all together, the factors included in the study explained less than 5% of the variation in voluntary seat belt use, and no subpopulation was identified in which seat belts were used by a majority of the members.