Behavior Change Among Agents of a Community Safety Program

Abstract

Pizza deliverers served as intervention agents for a community safety belt campaign sponsored by their store. The program consisted of local radio and newspaper promotions, safety belt reminder cards pasted to the boxtops of each pizza sold, free pizza giveaways to customers who displayed safety belt reminder cards (from the box-top) on their rearview mirror, and dollar-off coupons to patrons who asked the dispatcher to remind the deliverer to buckle up when delivering their pizza. Safety belt use among deliverers rose 32% over baseline during the intervention. Turn signal use among the same deliverers increased 41% over baseline suggesting response generalization. Increases in safety belt and turn signal use were maintained up to 24 weeks after the conclusion of the intervention. Deliverers at a control site did not show concomitant increases in safety belt or turn signal use. Social validity interviews indicated that 58% of the general public contacted by phone would be more likely to use their safety belt because of the community program.

Key Words:

• Agent
• community
• safety belt
• turn signal
• response generalization