Motor Vehicle Injury Safety Belts: Laws Mandating Use
Findings and Recommendations
The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends safety belt laws to increase safety belt use and reduce deaths and injuries among adolescents and adults.
The full CPSTF Finding and Rationale Statement and supporting documents for Motor Vehicle Injury Safety Belts: Laws Mandating Use are available in The Community Guide Collection on CDC Stacks.
Intervention
Safety belt laws mandate the use of safety belts in motor vehicles. Currently, all U.S. laws apply to drivers and front seat passengers. Other requirements, such as rear seat coverage, fines, affected age groups, type of enforcement, and exempted vehicles and drivers vary by state.
About The Systematic Review
The CPSTF finding is based on evidence from a systematic review of 33 studies (search period through June 2000).
Study Characteristics
Included studies used self-reported and observational data.
Summary of Results
The systematic review included 33 studies.
- Fatal injuries decreased by a median of 9% (6 studies).
- Nonfatal injuries decreased by a median of 2% (6 studies).
- Fatal and nonfatal injuries combined decreased by a median of 8% (9 studies).
- Observed safety belt use increased by a median of 33 percentage points (10 studies).
- Police-reported safety belt use increased by 26 percentage points (2 studies).
- Self-reported safety belt use increased by a median of 16 percentage points (4 studies)
Summary of Economic Evidence
An economic review of this intervention did not find any relevant studies.
Applicability
Results from this review should be applicable to adolescents and adults, as most of the included studies looked at motor vehicle occupants who were at least 16 years old.
Evidence Gaps
- How do the level of enforcement and publicity influence the effectiveness of safety belt laws?
- Does the severity of fines have any bearing on the effectiveness of the laws?
- Do other penalties (e.g., license demerits) add to the effectiveness of the laws?
- Do exemptions for certain vehicles and occupants reduce the effectiveness of the laws?
- What are the cost-benefit, cost utility, and cost-effectiveness of interventions to increase safety belt use?
Implementation Considerations and Resources
- Engage partners throughout the process. Building support from the ground up can help secure policies that reinforce healthy behaviors in the community.
- Demonstrate why the policy is important. Use CPSTF findings and recent surveillance data to show partners how policies have been effective, and explain how strengthening them could further improve health outcomes in their community.
- Educate stakeholders. Keep the media, community influencers, and policymakers informed about safety belt laws to help communicate messages that are accurate and timely.
- Keep messages brief and to the point. Use graphics, figures, or infographics to clearly demonstrate how the intervention can improve health outcomes.
- Extend your communication reach by working through partners who have the most credibility with key audiences.
- Pay attention to sustainability. Continue to conduct surveillance related to safety belt use and disseminate findings.
Crosswalks
Healthy People 2030 includes the following objectives related to this CPSTF recommendation.