Effectiveness of behavioral safety belt interventions.

A wide variety of approaches have been developed to promote safety belt use. This paper evaluates the relationship of types of behavioral safety belt programs to short- and long-term safety belt use rates. Five types of programs were examined: Law, Incentive, Education, Monitoring, and Prompt. Programs were generally effective in increasing use rates, with a median increase of 17.0% (95% CI = 13.4%, 20.1%). Program type differentially affected use rates, with Law and Incentive producing the highest increase in rates. Length of intervention and number of interventions within one program were not significantly related to use rates. Immediately after intervention ended, safety belt use declined but soon stabilized, with rates remaining significantly higher than baseline.