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Soori H¹ * , (PhD) Nasermoadeli A¹, (PhD) Ainy E¹, (MSc) Movahedi M¹, (PhD) Mehmandar MR², (MSc) Massoudei Nejhad MR¹, (PhD) Hatam Abady HR³, (MD) Rezazadeh Azari M¹, (PhD) Mahfozphoor S¹, (PhD) Vafaee R¹ (MD).

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1- Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Research Center, School of Public Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

2- Rahvar Research Center of NAJA, Tehran, Iran

3- Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Research Center & Imam Hossein Hospital, Tehran, Iran

  Abstract

Introduction: This study investigated the effect of mandatory seat belt use legislations on reducing traffic injuries and the intensity of road traffic injuries (RTIs).

Methods: Data on RTIs from one year before untill two years after the implementation of mandatory seat belt use legislations were obtained from the police department. After data cleaning and stratification, RTIs and mortalities of the first and second year after the implementation of mandatory seat belt use legislations were compared with those in the year prior to the intervention.

Results: The results showed that traffic mortalities consisted 13% of all RTIs in the year prior to the implementation, while it decreased to 9.7 % (95% CI: 9.6-9.9) and 11.4 % (95% CI: 11.3 -11.6) in the first and second years after the implementation, respectively. The trend of mortality reduction was not consistent in the two years, as we observed a slight increase in the proportion of mortalities in the second year after the implementation of mandatory seat belt use legislations, though it did not reach the level of the year before the implementation of this law.

Conclusion: Our findings suggested that the mandatory seat belt use was efficient in reducing the intensity of RTIs and it was also efficient in reducing the crude number of RTIs. However, in the second year after the implantation, the efficiency of this intervention reduced.

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Keywords: Traffic injuries, seat belt, accident, legislation.

Hakim Research Journal 2009 12 (1): 48- 54.