Seat-belt use among high school students in a semi-rural area of Western Turkey

Introduction: The period of adolescence undergoes many physical and mental changes.Changing emotional and physical status along with increasing social, family, and academicpressure lead to various impairments in the mental health of adolescents. Academic failureleads to the suicide rate in adolescents, predominantly high during the declaration of examresults which is significantly high in a rural area in comparison with urban. The study examinedthe prevalence of academic stress among high school students in a rural area of Rolpa, Nepal. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 6 schools in Rolpa from July to October 2019. The sample size calculated was 521. A convenient sampling technique was used for this study.The target population was adolescents enrolled in high schools of Rolpa. Ethical approval was takenbefore data collection. The scale for assessing academic stress was used to find out the prevalence.A questionnaire was translated in local language and pre-testing was done in Nepal Police School,Sanga among 10% of the calculated sample size. Data entry was done in Statistical Package for theSocial Sciences version 18. Descriptive statistical analysis was done for prevalence calculation. Results: Out of a total of 521 students, the prevalence of academic stress was seen among 138 (26.5%)students at a 95% confidence interval (22.72-30.28). Conclusions: The prevalence of academic stress in our study was high and was consistent with otherSouth Asian studies. Understanding academic stress and providing help and support to the studentswould help ease the burden for them.

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Effectiveness of a collaborative, student-run campaign to increase safety belt use among adolescents

Injury Prevention ◽

10.1136/injuryprev-2018-043075 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 26 (3) ◽

pp. 262-269

Author(s):

Jeremy D Kauffman ◽

Tandis Soltani ◽

Kelly McCullough ◽

Petra Vybiralova ◽

Karen Macauley ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High School Students ◽

Seat Belt ◽

Rank Test ◽

Short Term ◽

School Students ◽

Safety Belt ◽

Before And After ◽

Signed Rank Test ◽

Seat Belt Use ◽

Demographic Covariates

BackgroundMVCs are the leading cause of death among adolescents. Seat belts have been shown to decrease MVC-related death. The purpose of this retrospective cohort study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a community-supported, student-run campaign to increase safety belt use among adolescents in Southwest Florida.MethodsWe reviewed results of campaigns at 14 high schools from 2012 to 2018. The primary outcome was change in rates of student-driver seat belt use over the course of each campaign. Secondary outcomes included trends in seat belt use and MVC-related fatalities over the study period. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare rates of seat belt use before and after each intervention and over the course of the study period. Multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate the independent effects of demographic covariates on outcomes.ResultsAltogether, 85 campaigns were reviewed. A total of 8500 preintervention and 8500 postintervention observations of student seat belt use were assessed. The median rate of seat belt use increased from 82% prior to the intervention to 87% following the intervention (p<0.001). We did not detect a sustained trend in seat belt use or MVC-related fatalities over the study period. On multivariate analysis, schools with a higher proportion of minority students were less likely to experience a substantial increase in seat belt use following the intervention (OR=0.17, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.84, p=0.030).ConclusionThis collaborative campaign resulted in a modest, short-term increase in seat belt use among high school students. Future studies should evaluate which interventions are most effective and how short-term increases in seat belt use can be sustained.

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