Abstract
BackgroundIn the large cities of Benin, motorcycle taxi drivers, mainly between the ages of 20 and 40, are particularly exposed to accidents due to their profession. User awareness, along with legislative reforms and enforcement measures, would reduce the incidence of crashes and injuries. This study aims to test the effectiveness of an awareness-raising model regarding helmet use for motorcycle taxi drivers.MethodsThis is a quasi-experimental study that will take place in the cities of Parakou (intervention group) and Porto Novo (control group). Over a three-month period, a package of awareness-raising activities will be implemented in the intervention area, targeting a group of motorcycle taxi drivers. The messages to be developed for awareness-raising will focus on the most frequently influencing factors, as identified by the baseline collection. These key messages will be disseminated through various tools and communication channels (banners, motorcycle stickers and motorcycle taxi uniforms, interactive sessions). Data will be collected prospectively via a self-reported questionnaire and observation, carried out before the intervention, at the end, and 6 months later. The data will relate to knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding helmet use. The analysis will compare the indicators between the groups, as well as between the pre- and post-intervention phase. The KoboCollect software will be used for data entry and processing, and Stata 15 will be used for data analysis. Chi-square or Fisher, Student’s or Kruskal-Wallis tests will be used for the comparisons. The difference-in-difference method will be used to determine the specific effect of the awareness activities.DiscussionThis study will assess the contribution of awareness messages to changing the behaviour of motorcycle taxi drivers by determining the specific effect of the intervention.
Highlights
In the large cities of Benin, motorcycle taxi drivers, mainly between the ages of 20 and 40, are exposed to accidents due to their profession
In most African countries, the use of vehicles that do not meet key safety standards, the dilapidated state of road infrastructure, and the absence, inadequacy or insufficient enforcement of road safety laws continue to expose road users to fatal road accidents [2, 3]. Added to this are the behaviours of road users
Concerning the wearing of helmets, the implementation of helmet legislation seems to be effective in increasing the use of helmets, and reducing head injuries and deaths from road accidents [23,24,25], even more so if it is accompanied by public awareness and education, which affect user knowledge and attitudes towards helmet-wearing behaviour [22, 26]
Summary
Study framework The study will take place in two cities in Benin: Porto Novo and Parakou. The experiment will be implemented among motorcycle taxi drivers in parks in Parakou (intervention group), while those in Porto Novo will not benefit from the awareness activity package and will be the control group. Baseline data collection This data collection will take place at t0 in September 2020, before the start of the awareness-raising phase in the two zones (intervention and control), in order to have an understanding of the baseline situation before the implementation of the awareness-raising activities It will be in the form of a survey on knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) about helmet wearing. If the conditions are not met, we will use Fisher’s exact test After this preliminary analysis, the difference-indifference (DD) estimator, an approach using a linear parametric model, will be used [34] to determine the specific effect of the awareness-raising activities in order to assess whether these have brought any added value.
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