title: Attitude change in youths after being exposed to different road safety interventions in two Mexican cities.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the reach of three different types of road safety interventions (social marketing, education and law enforcement) implemented as part of the Iniciativa Mexicana de Seguridad Vial y Prevención de Lesiones en el Tránsito (Mexican Initiative for Road Safety and the Prevention of Road Traffic Injuries) among youth in two Mexican cities (Guadalajara-Zapopan, Jalisco and León, Guanajuato), and to examine students' self-reported attitude change after being exposed to these interventions.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional design was utilized to evaluate the reach of the city-wide interventions among a random sample of public and private high school and college students from October to December 2011. A total of 5,114 students completed a self-administered questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In both cities, students reported a greater exposure to social marketing (73% in Guadalajara-Zapopan and 64% in León) as compared to educational interventions (29.3% in León and 21.6% in Guadalajara-Zapopan) and law enforcement activities (~12% in both). Among respondents, self-reported attitude change was higher after being exposed to educational interventions than law enforcement. Social marketing yielded the lowest prevalence of self-reported attitude change.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results show a potential moderate impact, measured as self-reported attitude change, resulting from the three intervention approaches under study. Future studies should address the intensity of exposure as well as the translation of attitude change into safer behaviors. Information generated by this study could be useful for local authorities in the intervention areas to inform their activities.
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Systems Research, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, Mexico; Fundación Entornos, A. C., Cuernavaca, Mexico.
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Híjar
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Systems Research, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, Mexico.
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pérez-Núñez
authors.affiliation: Centro Regional de Investigaciones Multidisciplinarias, CRIM-UNAM, Cuernavaca, Mexico. Electronic address: dzoara.santoyo@outlook.com.
authors.forename: Dzoara
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Santoyo-Castillo
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Lunnen
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA.
authors.forename: Aruna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chandran
authors.affiliation: Centro Universitario de Ciencias de la Salud de la Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, México.
authors.forename: Alfredo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Celis
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de Guanajuato, campus León, México.
authors.forename: Socorro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carmona-Lozano
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002947:Cities; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D035846:Law Enforcement; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico; D012307:Risk Factors; D012449:Safety; D040241:Social Marketing; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attitude change; Intervention studies; Latin America; Mexico; Risk factors; Road safety education; Road traffic injury; Social marketing; Youths