USE OF SAFETY BELT AMONG ARMY PERSONNEL

Use of Safety Belt

Abstract

Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of safety belt use and the reasons for its non use among army personnel.

Study Design: A cross-sectional descriptive study.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out at Rawalpindi Cantonment from Jan 2013 to June 2013.

Subjects and Methods: The study was carried out among two different categories of Army Personnel i.e. officers and soldiers through a structured questionnaire.

Results: Mean age of officers and soldiers was 38 and 29 years respectively. A total of 146 (97.3%) officers and 128 (85.3%) soldiers were in favor of using seat belt while driving whereas 4 (2.7%) officers and 22 (14.7%) soldiers were against it. The study depicted that 147 (98%) officers and 133 (88.7%) soldiers had sufficient knowledge about the significance of safety belt use but the results regarding its use were not encouraging as 56 (37.3%) officers and 40 (26.7%) soldiers did not use safety belt while driving, although 146 (97.3%) officers and 128 (85.3%) soldiers were in favor of using safety belt.

Conclusion: Army personnel had sufficient knowledge about the significance of safety belt; similarly attitude towards its use was also satisfactorily positive however, a significant percentage was indeed not putting their knowledge of significance into practice. Inattention and inconvenience along with inadequate law was the main reason for not using safety seat belt.