Seat belt laws and prevalence of use among high school students in the United States

Abstract

To examine the association between state seat belt laws and the prevalence of seat belt use among a nationally representative sample of teenagers in the United States, taking into consideration state-specific child restraint laws that could affect teenagers of different ages. Data were from the 2019 state Youth Risk Behavior Survey. We estimated prevalence ratios using modified Poisson regression with robust variance estimates to evaluate associations between state seat belt laws and seat belt use. Among, 81,929 high school students under 18 from 36 states, 56% always wore a seat belt when someone else was driving. Relative to students in states with secondary enforcement of seat belt laws, students living in states with primary enforcement were 5% more likely (aPR=1.05, 95% CI: 0.99, 1.11), and students covered by a child restraint law were 6% more likely to always wear a seat belt (aPR=1.06, 95% CI: 0.99, 1.12) after adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and graduated driver licensing laws. States with secondary seat belt enforcement should consider upgrading seat belt laws to potentially improve the prevalence of seat belt use among adolescents, potentially reducing injuries and deaths due to motor vehicle crashes.