Evaluation on the effects of education regarding road safety among middle school students

Abstract

To evaluate the intervention effects for road traffic accident prevention among middle school students through understanding their knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) on road safety. Students in Grade 1 and Grade 2 from 7 junior and senior middle schools in Ji'nan city were selected as intervention group and students from a middle school in Hefei city served as control group. Education was provided to the intervention group and all the middle school students in Ji'nan city. Changes of KAP on road safety were measured for both groups during the follow-up period, and comparison on KAP for the two groups was carried statistically. The mean scores of road safety knowledge for intervention group improved significantly during the follow-up period (from 0.9 - 3.8), while these indices did not change much in the control group (from 0 - 0.2). Negative attitude on road safety was found in both groups, but less in the intervention group. More students started to admit that middle school students themselves should be responsible for most of the RTAs. Per week frequency of violating traffic rules did not improve, however during the follow-up period on both groups as still 75% to 80% of the students violating the traffic rules less than 2 times per week. Although three kinds and one kind of traffic rules violation seemed to have improved in the intervention group and in the control group, there were still two and three other kinds turned worse in the intervention and in the control group, respectively. Program on road safety education significantly improved the relative knowledge for middle school student and it exerted positive effects in road safety attitude to some extent. However, no significant effect was found in the improvement on their behavior. Education on road safety should be carried out in the early stage of childhood with newer and more effective intervention approaches.