[Adolescents, risk situations and road safety].
OBJECTIVE
Describe the risk behaviour relationships with road safety in adolescents.


METHODS
Cross-sectional descriptive study.


METHODS
Madrid and Andalusia Regions, representative samples.


METHODS
The sample included 3,612 in secondary school pupils from Madrid (n=1708) and Andalusia (n=1904). The survey was carried out during May and June 2007.


METHODS
The data collected included sociodemographic areas (age, sex, grade, father's profession, birth place, etc.) and risk situation and behaviour (risk behaviour as driver or passenger).


RESULTS
16.2% of the adolescents have been involved in a dangerous situation with motorcycles during the last year. 16.7% never use a helmet when riding a motorcycle and 62% do not wear one when riding a bicycle on the road; 17.4% frequently ride a motorcycle over the speed limit and 24.5% when driving a car. There are significant differences regarding sex, grade and region (Madrid or Andalusia). There are four factors which explain 62% of the variance: drug factor, speed factor, security factor and passenger factor. Two of these have twice the probability of having a dangerous situation when riding a motorcycle: drug factor (OR=1.96; 95% CI, 1.77-2.18) and the speed factor ((OR=2.13; 95% CI, 1.92-2.36).


CONCLUSIONS
Adolescents in higher grades and living in Andalusia were less road safety conscious. This pattern should be taken into account when designing preventive actions in Road Safety Education.
Meneses Falcón
Carmen
C
Departamento de Sociología y Trabajo Social, Universidad P. Comillas ICAI-ICADE de Madrid, España. cmeneses@chs.upcomillas.es
Gil García
Eugenia
E
Romo Avilés
Nuria
N
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009049:Motorcycles; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012449:Safety; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
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