Office of Behavioral Safety Research, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, Washington, DC, 20590, United States.
Accid Anal Prev. 2021 Mar;151:105976. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2021.105976. Epub 2021 Jan 23.
In the United States, a disproportionate number of motor vehicle crash fatalities occur in rural areas. While many factors likely contribute to the discrepancy between fatality rates in rural and urban areas, prior studies suggest that rural drivers may be more likely to engage in risky driving behaviors like seat belt non-use. Although having favorable attitudes or beliefs about seat belts increases the likelihood of wearing them, few studies have investigated the possibility that lower rates of seat belt use in rural areas may result from a greater prevalence of unfavorable seat belt attitudes and beliefs-one part of a distinct rural "traffic safety culture." In the current study, we analyzed responses from the 2016 Motor Vehicle Occupant Safety Survey (MVOSS) to test the hypotheses that rural drivers are more likely than urban drivers to hold unfavorable attitudes and beliefs about seat belts, and that these unfavorable attitudes and beliefs predict lower self-reported seat belt use. We found that rural and urban drivers differed significantly on several seat belt attitudes and beliefs and that these differences persisted after controlling for possible demographic differences between rural and urban drivers. We also found that drivers who hold less favorable attitudes and beliefs were less likely to always wear their seat belts. However, even after accounting for demographic factors and differences in attitudes and beliefs, rural drivers continued to be less likely to report full-time seat belt use than urban drivers. Our findings suggest that rural drivers should be treated as a distinct market segment for seat belt messaging and public awareness campaigns, and that interventions designed to change the unfavorable attitudes and beliefs about seat belts held by rural drivers may help reduce the disparity between rural and urban traffic fatality rates.
在美国，相当数量的机动车事故死亡事件发生在农村地区。尽管许多因素可能导致农村和城市地区的死亡率存在差异，但先前的研究表明，农村驾驶员可能更倾向于采取危险的驾驶行为，例如不使用安全带。尽管对安全带持有有利的态度或信念会增加佩戴安全带的可能性，但很少有研究调查农村地区安全带使用率较低的原因是否可能是由于对安全带的不利态度和信念更为普遍，这是一种独特的农村“交通安全文化”的一部分。在当前的研究中，我们分析了 2016 年机动车乘客安全调查（MVOSS）的回应，以检验以下假设：农村驾驶员比城市驾驶员更有可能对安全带持有不利的态度和信念，并且这些不利的态度和信念预测自我报告的安全带使用率较低。我们发现，农村和城市驾驶员在几个安全带态度和信念上存在显著差异，并且这些差异在控制了农村和城市驾驶员之间可能存在的人口统计学差异后仍然存在。我们还发现，对安全带持有不太有利的态度和信念的驾驶员不太可能始终系好安全带。然而，即使考虑到人口统计学因素以及态度和信念的差异，农村驾驶员报告全职使用安全带的比例仍然低于城市驾驶员。我们的研究结果表明，农村驾驶员应被视为安全带信息传递和公众意识活动的一个独特细分市场，而旨在改变农村驾驶员对安全带的不利态度和信念的干预措施可能有助于减少农村和城市交通死亡率之间的差距。
