Education in trauma: An educational alternative that promotes injury prevention.

PURPOSE: As trauma is a public health problem, different programs have been designed to prevent injuries. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational model that measures the adolescents' attitudes towards the rules of road safety, alcohol and road accidents in Colombia.

METHODS: A pedagogical model evaluating the effect of road safety education and adolescents' attitudes towards and experiences of alcohol and road accidents in Colombia was created. After the education concluded, this educational process is analyzed by its impact on adolescents' behavior. The educational program included 160 adolescents with the mean age being 17.5 years.

RESULTS: The test results indicated that before the educational program 80% of adolescents did not use a safety element when driving, while after the educational program the percentage of no helmet use among adolescents decreased from 72.5% to 24.3% (p = 0.0001) and driving a vehicle under the state of drunkenness from 49.3% to 8.1% (p = 0.0001).

CONCLUSION: An educational model aimed at preventing injuries caused by traffic accidents is shown to be effective in generating changes in adolescents' customs of and attitudes towards alcohol and road safety standards in Colombia.