Awareness and practices on road safety among adolescents school children in Imphal, Manipur: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: The UN General Assembly declared 2011-2020 as the "Decade of Action for Road Safety” with the goal to stabilize and reduce the increasing trend in road traffic fatalities. The objective of the study was to assess awareness and practices on road safety among adolescent school children and to determine any factors associated with awareness and practices on road safety with selected socio-demographic variable.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 2306 adolescent school students studying in classes VIII-XII in various schools selected by random sampling technique in two districts of Manipur during June 2018. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Based on the percentile, awareness level of the students was grouped into good, average and poor. Descriptive statistics like mean, SD and analytical statistics such as Chi-squared test were used. A p-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant.Results: The mean (SD) age of the 2306 students was 15.29±1.4 year. Majority of the students belongs to late adolescents. Only 10% of the students have good awareness level on road safety. Majority of the students’ drives two wheelers (96.7%), does not possess driving license (89.1%) and around two-fifths used mobile phone while driving. Around 30% of the students were ever exposed to road traffic accident. Statistically significant association was found between late adolescents, boys, higher class, increase in parent’s educational level with good awareness level.Conclusions: Few students have good awareness level on road safety measures. Therefore, awareness campaigns regarding road traffic safety should be included in the compulsory training program of schools.