Smoking, seat-belts, and beliefs about health

A SIX-month study was under taken to measure the overall effect of health education programmes promoting seat- belt wearing in vehicles, in a defined population. The results indicated that despite co ordinated programmes involving press, television, radio, posters and personalised appeals through book marks, no sustained increase in the wearing rate either by drivers or passengers (front-seat) was achieved. Analysis of data from a postal questionnaire evaluat ing specific aspects of the health education programmes indicated a 50 per cent penetration by the programme within the popula tion. A significant finding from the questionnaire was that people who smoked were less likely to wear seat-belts (P<.001). Smokers were also found to be less likely to be concerned with death as an outcome of non-seat belt wearing (P<.001) and were found to be signifi cantly against measures to intro duce legislation to enforce seat- belt wearing (P<.01).

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“…The association between smoking and the non-wearing of seat-belts is consistent with that found by Eiser et al (5).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

A study of the effect of a health education programme in promoting seat-belt wearing

Dillow¹,

Swann²,

Cliff

1981

Health Education Journal

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“…Jessor, 1998). For example, smokers are more likely than nonsmokers to eschew seat belts (Eiser, Sutton, & Wober, 1979) and to report risky sexual behavior (Valois, 1999). Smokers are also less likely than nonsmokers to engage in healthy behaviors, such as healthy eating (Morabia & Wynder, 1990), physical activity (Emmons, Marcus, Linnan, Rossi, & Abrams, 1994), and cancer screening (Carlos, Fendrick, Patterson, & Bernstein, 2005).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Medication Adherence in HIV-Infected Smokers: The Mediating Role of Depressive Symptoms

Webb¹,

Vanable²,

Carey³

et al. 2009

AIDS Education and Prevention

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Strict medication adherence is integral to the success of highly active antiretroviral therapies (HAART) in patients with HIV. Research has examined several predictors of adherence, but few studies have examined the association between current smoking, which is highly prevalent among people living with HIV, and medication adherence; moreover, no study has examined the mediating role of depressive symptoms, which may influence both smoking and adherence. Therefore, we recruited 168 patients who were prescribed HAART and assessed viral load, CD4+ count, cigarette smoking, past week and 3-month medication adherence, and depressive symptoms. Results showed that 70% smoked at least one cigarette per day. As predicted, smoking was associated with poorer past week and 3-month adherence, and more depressive symptoms. Regression analyses provided partial support for the hypothesis that depressive symptoms mediated nonadherence among smokers. We conclude that future smoking cessation interventions with this population should target medical adherence and depression as intervention components.

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“…This effect has been noted both for seat-belt use (Eiser et al, 1979) and for more general health issues (Eiser and Harding, in press).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Acceptance of Responsibility for Accidents

O'Looney

Harding

1983

Journal of the Institute of Health Education

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Descriptions of 14 hypothetical events were presented to 214 students (average age 15 years). The 14 descriptions were each written in two different ways: in the "commission" condition, each event described was an accident which resulted from an error which was committed by the target person; in the "omission" condition the target person was described as having failed to act in a way which could have prevented the accident. Subjects rated the likelihood of the outcome resulting from the target person's action, the severity of the outcome, and the responsibility of the target person. Regression analyses, treating likelihood and severity as independent variables with sex, smoking status and omission/commission as dummy variables, revealed an overall tendency for more responsibility to be attributed in the commission than the omission condition (although this depended on the specific event considered). There were also positive relationships between responsibility and both likelihood and severity. Males and cigarette smokers were generally found to attribute less responsibility than females and non-smokers. The implications for health education are discussed. IntroductionMany attempts at persuasion, notably in the field of health and safety education, take the form of recommendations for prophylactic action. It is conceivable that one obstacle to the effectiveness of such communications may be that individuals are less likely to feel responsible for outcomes resulting from their failure to take appropriate preventive measures, than for outcomes resulting from hazards that they actively created. Thus, errors of omission may attract lower attributions of responsibility, other things being equal, than errors of commission. This distinction is also of interest if health educators wish to persuade people to be responsible not only for their own health, but also for that of people around them. If a policy of inactivity leads to less feeling of personal responsibility for an accident, then the natural tendency of "noninterference" will be difficult to counteract.In the large amount of psychological literature on attribution theory, relatively little attention has been directed to this variable of omission/commission. One exception is the study by Passer, Kelley and Michela (1978), but their main concern was not the assignment of responsibility. In an attempt to investigate whether the distinction was, in fact, relevant to responsibility attribution, Fincham and Jaspars (1980) reported two apparently conflicting results. Firstly, using stories where an actor either failed to observe a safety precaution or actually removed safety equipment to defray expenses, and an accident resulted, omission/commission was found to have no effect on the

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Smoking, seat-belts, and beliefs about health

Cited by 54 publications

References 7 publications

A study of the effect of a health education programme in promoting seat-belt wearing

A study of the effect of a health education programme in promoting seat-belt wearing

Medication Adherence in HIV-Infected Smokers: The Mediating Role of Depressive Symptoms

Acceptance of Responsibility for Accidents

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