Journal of School of Public Health and

Background and Aim: Motorcyclists constitute a large and growing portion of the victims of traffic accidents in Iran. Reasons include high motorcycle production rates and relatively low prices. This case control study was conducted to look at the role of a number of presumed risk factors in Kashan, a city with high motorcyclist casualty rates.

Material and Methods: Cases for this study were motorcyclists listed by the Traffic Police as either injured or killed over the period extending from 20/3/2005 to 20/9/2005. For each case, another motorcyclist who regularly passed the point of accident on the same day of the week was taken as control. Supplementary data were gathered by interview with the subjects (when possible) or a first-degree relative (for dead cases). Data were analyzed using the SPSS software.

Results: There were statistically significant relationships between the occurrence of death or injury and the following set of factors: age, marital status, job, education, vehicle ownership, BMI, driving experience with motorcycles and cars, time spent driving in one day, driver's estimate of his own speed, and  weather conditions.

Conclusion: This study highlights the importance of effective interventions and offers some useful information for policy makers.

Background and Aim: In social marketing, the common techniques of commercial marketing are used to increase the chances of acceptability of an idea or action by the target group. In this study, we determined the impact of an intervention based on social marketing to reduce risky driving behaviors among taxi drivers in Tehran.

Materials and Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study, consisting of a quantitative and a qualitative part, on taxi-drivers in 2 regions (an intervention and a control groups) in the City of Tehran. Based on a formative research approach, the components of social marketing, namely, the product (reminder message for concentrating on avoidance of two target behaviors, tailgating and not driving between lines), price, place and promotion were determined. An 8-week educational program was implemented, the components being installation of stickers before the driver's eyes, distributing a pamphlet, and transferring messages through taxi route supervisors as opinion leaders. After six weeks, risky driving behaviors were assessed by checklists and compared.

Results: The intervention resulted in statistically significant reductions in the two target behaviors in the intervention group as compared with the control group. Furthermore, logistic regression showed that the odds ratio for avoiding both behaviors increased significantly in the intervention group. 

Conclusion: Determining specific target groups, designing interventions based on actual needs and wants of the target group, and focusing on the factors influencing the behavior market are the basic elements of social marketing. Due consideration of these elements when designing behavioral interventions would lead to reductions in risky driving behaviors.