Seat Belt Use During Pregnancy in a Nigerian Community

Abstract

This study was designed to determine compliance with car seat belt amongst antenatal patients and also identify the reasons for poor compliance with seat belt use. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Ethical Committee of the hospital prior to carrying out this study. This study was conducted between October and December,2007 at the antenatal clinic of Federal Medical Centre ,Owo , Ondo State, Nigeria. One hundred and four consenting respondents were selected by simple random sampling technique and interviewed by the authors and two assistants. Information regarding their bio data, compliance with seat belt use in pregnancy and reasons for poor compliance were obtained. The data obtained was collated and analyzed with SPSS 12.0.1 statistical soft ware package . 50(48.1%) used seat belt with varying degree of compliance and 54(51.9%) failed to use seat belt. Very few ;4(8%) used it always. 34(35.4%) attributed poor compliance with seat belt to discomfort while 33(34.4%) attributed it to fear of injury to the baby in the womb. Most respondents (51%) were informed about seat belt use in pregnancy by Road Safety Corps officers. A little over half of the pregnant women interviewed failed to comply with seat belt. Very few of them used seat belt always. Reasons for poor compliance with seat belt revolved mainly around fear of injury to the baby in the womb and discomfort. There is need for aggressive educational efforts to improve seat belt compliance amongst pregnant women .

Keywords: Pregnant women, seat belt compliance, Nigeria.

Nigerian Hospital Practice Vol. 2 (1) 2008: pp. 14-17