TRENDS IN SAFETY BELT USE BY DEMOGRAPHICS AND BY TYPE OF STATE SAFETYBELT LAW, 1987 THROUGH 1993

Objectives. This study examined trends in safety belt use by age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, and type of safety belt law Methods. We an alyzed Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data on safety belt use from 33 states for 1987 through 1993 and used linear regression mo dels to determine trends in prevalence. Results. Asian/Pacific Islande rs and Hispanics had the highest safety belt use among racial/ethnic g roups. Prevalence varied little from age 25 through 64 years in all ye ars, but averaged 25 percentage points higher in states with primary l aws than in states with no belt laws. Overall safety belt use increase d by an average of 2.7 +/- 0.1 percentage points per year and varied l ittle across most demographic groups, but there was no significant inc rease for Black males aged 18 through 29 years. Conclusions. The gener ally consistent increase in safety belt use across demographic groups is in sharp contrast to trends in other health-risk behaviors. States should enact primary safety belt laws and focus safety belt use effort s towards young Black males.