The Program for Preventing Traffic Accidents in Youth

Principle investigator: Roya Kelishadi

Co-investigators: Asieh Pirzadeh, Firoozeh Mostafavi, Maryam Nasirian

Driving accidents are among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among young adults. “The Program for Preventing Traffic Accidents in Youth” study was conducted to evaluate common behaviors in traffic accidents among youth and to improve them using the theory of planned behavior. This experiment was conducted in 5 cities of Lenjan, Gamishan, Fasa, Tehran and Zahedan during 2017-2018 on almost 5000 young adults who were chosen randomly. Considering the high prevalence of traffic accidents among individuals aged 19-29 years, and underestimation of the danger following traffic accidents in this age group, they were defined as the target population of the study.

Sociodemographic information regarding age, height, weight, father’s education, mother’s education, educational status, income and previous history of accidents as a pedestrian were collected. Participants underwent 6 months of educational sessions that were designed based on the theory of planned behavior on prevention of accidents and the questionnaire was completed as pretest and posttest (3 months after the end of the educational sessions). The questionnaire was designed based on the Manchester driving behavior questionnaire (MDBQ), the theory of planned behavior and pedestrian’s behavior checklist, by the study team. The results showed that educational sessions led to the significant improvement of driving and traffic accident behaviors among young adults.