A Survey about Attitude and Practice of Yazd Motorcycle Drivers on Using Helmet

Traffic and problems around it is one of the important problems of industrial countries the prevention of which can develop the country and determine the health peoples. Cycle drivers are considered as high risk drivers of the roads for sustaining most loss. While putting on helmet can decrease roads deaths and injuries up to 20%-45%, WHO statistics reports the suffering of 25% of traffic victims from head injuries.

This is a descriptive study conducted on 210 cycle drivers of Yazd city.The subjects were selected by cluster sampling method in 5 sections of the city.The data were collected by a questionnaire and were then analyzed by SPSS software. Different tests were used to analyze the data.

The results indicate that most of the cycle drivers (37.6%) was at the age group of 17-20.Those who enjoyed a driving certificate was 48.6% while 51.4% lacked it.Of them 43.3% used a helmet while 56.7% did not. Also 58.9% of the drivers intended to use a helmet in future. The mean grade score of the attitude of the drivers in the age group under 17 was 55.28±4.57 and their practice stood at 1±.57. Also the mean grade score of the attitude of the age group 17-20 was 55.08±6.77 while that for their practice score came to 1.54±.74.

The results indicate that using helmet by cycle drivers can have an appropriate effect on their health. It is also shown that using helmet by these drivers is rather low so calling for a need to draw attention of the authorities to the idea.