Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding Driving Safety among Male University Students in Saudi Arabia
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- Category: Vol. 85, March 2017
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Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding Driving Safety among Male University Students in Saudi Arabia, MOHAMMAD S.A. AL-SHAHRANI, ABDALLAH M. AL-SHAHRANI, MUFFARAH H.M. AL-HARTHI, BANDAR M. AL-MOJARTHE, NASSER G. AL-QAHTANI, METEB A.S. AL-BRAIK, MOHANNAD M.S. AL-AMRI, ALI A.A. AWADH, ABDULGHANI M.Y. AL-QHTANI, AYEDH A.A. ALAHMARY and OSSAMA A. MOSTAFA
Abstract
Aim of Study: To assess knowledge, attitude and practices of university students regarding driving safety.
Subjects and Methods: The study included 400 male Saudi students enrolled in King Khalid University (KKU) in Abha City, Saudi Arabia. Four colleges were randomly selected, i.e., medicine, pharmacy, computer sciences and human sciences. A self-administered questionnaire was constructed by the researchers, which consisted of 4 parts, i.e., socio-demographic, knowledge, attitude and practices related to driving safety.
Results: Knowledge about driving safety was poor among 34% of students', while 45% of students had fair knowledge and 21% had good knowledge. Most students had positive attitude toward driving safety (94%). Practice grades regarding driving safety were poor among 44% of university students, while 46% of students had fair grade and 10% had good practice grades. Almost all students drive a car (96.8%), while only 77.3% had a driving license. A total of 5.9% committed a Road Traffic Accident (RTA) once, while 1.6% committed RTAs more than once, and 2.3% were hospitalized once due to being exposed to a RTA, while 0.8% were hospitalized more than once due to being exposed to RTAs. The main reasons for safety belt use were being convinced of its impor-tance and the fear of policemen's punishment, while the main reasons for not using it was forgetting to use it and that it restricts movements. More than two thirds of students believe that using the safety belt while driving decreases injuries, while 66.8% believe that it decreases deaths and 60% believe that it decreases committing traffic violations. However, 5.8% of students believe that it has no importance. The main reasons for RTAs as seen by students were high speed driving (53.8%); lack of experience in driving (15.8%); risk taking behavior while driving (13.5%); lowered driver's attention or vigilance (10.3%) and non-compliance to traffic road instructions (9.8%).