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Healthy lifestyle and safety: An expected net benefit approach to seat belt use
Author(s) -
O'Conor Richard M.,
Blomquist Glen C.,
Miller Ted R.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
managerial and decision economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.288
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1099-1468
pISSN - 0143-6570
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1468(199609)17:5<483::aid-mde790>3.0.co;2-e
Subject(s) - seat belt , safety net , sample (material) , consistency (knowledge bases) , environmental health , ordered logit , logistic regression , demography , psychology , medicine , engineering , statistics , mathematics , chemistry , geometry , chromatography , sociology , automotive engineering
This paper examines the relationship between motorist safety belt use and three lifestyle behaviors affecting health. A healthy lifestyle affects benefits of seat belt use because it indicates a greater value on safety. If individuals are rational in their behavior, we expect consistency across health and safety choices. Using a nationwide survey sample and logit analysis we find lifestyle has expected effects on belt use holding constant individual and vehicle characteristics. Illustrations for two different lifestyles are considered: (1) smoking 1 pack per day, 2 years between dental visits, and no regular exercise and (2) no smoking, 1 year between dental visits and regular exercise. Healtiher lifestyle increases the probability of seat belt use by more than 50% for typical individuals