The effects of an intervention campaign to enhance seat belt use on campus

The national health objectives for the year 2000 called for an increase in the use of safety restraints to 85% of motor vehicle occupants. An assessme nt on one campus indicated that only 79% of those observed were wearing sea t belts. Nursing faculty and students undertook a multimodal intervention c ampaign to increase seat belt use in the campus community. Observed use of seat belts increased to 81% after the week-long intervention consisting of reminder banners, media coverage, permanent reminder signs, roll-over demon strations, a presentation on the need for seat belt use, and distribution o f seat belt use pledge cards. Although the increase was small, it was stati stically significant and could represent considerable savings in healthcare costs if even 2% of the population could be saved from serious injury by u sing seat belts. In addition, the change in seat belt use represented a dec line of nearly 10% in the number of nonusers.