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Motivating safety belt use at a community hospital: An effective integration of incentive and commitment strategies
Author(s) -
Nimmer James G.,
Geller E. Scott
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1007/bf00919377
Subject(s) - pledge , incentive , health psychology , baseline (sea) , intervention (counseling) , public health , medicine , psychology , business , nursing , political science , law , economics , microeconomics
An effective hospital-based safety-belt program incorporated several advantages over prior attempts to increase safety belt use, including (a) the use of indigenous staff as program sponsors, coordinators, and delivery agents; (b) a yearlong program evaluation; and (c) a combination of extrinsic incentives and intrinsic commitment. To be eligible for a weekly $5, employees met the following contingencies: (a) signed a pledge card; (b) displayed the signed pledge card in their vehicle; and (c) wore a safety belt. Overall, belt use increased from a 2-week baseline mean of 15.6% to 34.7% during the 6-month intervention, and decreased to 25.6% at withdrawal. For the pledge card signers (n = 188) and the nonsigners (n = 533), belt use increased from baseline means of 29.4% and 11.8% to intervention use rates of 75.1 and 17.7%, respectively. Withdrawal and 4-month follow-up use rates were 56.0% and 44.9% for the Pledge group, and 17.2% and 22.1% for the Nonpledge group.