Prevalence of seat belt and mobile phone use and road accident injuries amongst college students in Kerman, Iran.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the prevalence of mobile phone and seat belt use in driving in college students aged 18-24 years. METHODS The study consisted of two phases. In the first phase, a questionnaire was given to 265 college students. The sample contained 188 males and 77 females. In the second phase, the data pertaining to road accident injuries from March 20, 2007 to March 20, 2008 were collected from Bahonar Central Hospital in Kerman, Iran, and analyzed. RESULTS There were 14.0% of male and 19.0% of female participants traveled belted while driving on urban roads. It indicated that the participants unbelted or using mobile phone were more involved in accidents in last three years. This study also revealed that 19.0% of male and 4.2% of female drivers considered using mobile phone in driving not hazardous. The highest injury and property damage crash rates were 87 and 137 per 100 000 inhabitants, which occured in male group aged 18-24 years. And 30% of all fatalities were 19-24 years old. CONCLUSIONS More than 50% of college students traveled unbelted. The females were less involved in road accident injuries. The college students aged 18-24 years had the highest percentages of trauma and head injury.

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