Abstract

Although seat belt legislation was implemented in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 1999, the prevalence of seat belt use did not exceed 15% postimplementation (El-Sadig et al, 2002).

Based on this low prevalence rate, an intervention consisted of social marketing and enhance traffic enforcement strategies were implemented in Abu Dhabi over 4 months period.

The prevalence of seat belt use among drivers and passengers increased from 35% to 45% and from 26% to 33%, respectively (pre- to immediately postintervention).

There prevalence among local drivers increased from 5.6% pre to 10% immediately postintervention and for non-local drivers from 54% to 66%. The overall prevalence rate among local passengers remained at 7% compared to non-local passengers which increased from 37% pre- to 50% immediately postintervention.

At 6 months postintervention, the percentage of all drivers and passengers using seat were 48% and 41.8%, respectively. There was a further 3% increase in the prevalence of seat belt use among local drivers compared to relatively unchanged rate (67%) for non-local drivers.

On the other hand, the prevalence of seat belt use increased from 7% to 11% among local passengers compared to a further 8% increase among non-local passengers.

The finding from this study is consistent with findings from other studies where similar interventions have been implemented (Shults et al, 2004; Stevenson et al, 2008) which demonstrates that successful road safety interventions undertaken in high income countries can effectively be implemented in the UAE.