Biomedical subjects

E Scott Geller

Publications and source records attributed to E Scott Geller.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Reducing excessive alcohol consumption at university fraternity parties: a cost-effective incentive/reward intervention.

The impact of an incentive/reward intervention on college students' intoxication from alcohol consumption at fraternity parties was explored using a group-randomized trial. Participants included 702 college students (447 men, 225 women) attending fraternity parties in Blacksburg, VA. Six fraternities were randomly assigned to a control or experimental group, and each of these fraternities hosted two parties. The three fraternities in the experimental group hosted a baseline party first and then hosted an intervention party at which those having a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level below 0.05 were entered in a $100 cash lottery. The three fraternities in the control group hosted two control (non-intervention) parties. For the experimental fraternities, mean BAC levels were significantly lower at the intervention parties (M=0.079) than the baseline parties (M=0.098) and the percentage of party-goers with a BAC below 0.08 was significantly higher at intervention parties (40.1%) than at baseline parties (30.6%). This field study supports the efficacy of differential reinforcement in controlling student intoxication at party settings.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Behavior-based safety and occupational risk management.

The behavior-based approach to managing occupational risk and preventing workplace injuries is reviewed. Unlike the typical top-down control approach to industrial safety, behavior-based safety (BBS) provides tools and procedures workers can use to take personal control of occupational risks. Strategies the author and his colleagues have been using for more than a decade to teach BBS to safety leaders and line workers are presented. In addition, a conceptual model is proposed for matching the awareness and behavior of an individual with a particular BBS intervention technique.

Behavior Therapy↗

PubMed2004

Increasing the safety of children's vehicle travel: from effective risk communication to behavior change.

INTRODUCTION: When installed and used correctly, child safety seats reduce the risk of fatal injury by 71% for infants and 54% for toddlers. However, four out of five safety seats are unintentionally misused. Yet, parents fail to participate in safety-seat checks and other child seat interventions aimed at correcting misuse. METHOD: Such lack of participation is the focus of this article, which argues that most caregivers are naïve to their own vulnerability for misusing their child's seat. Research on risk perception is discussed as a guide to understanding both the high misuse rate and the lack of participation in interventions designed to correct this public safety problem. RESULTS AND IMPACT: A comprehensive intervention plan that incorporates risk communication techniques for maximum parental participation is proposed that includes three essential components: (a) establishing community locations for parents to turn for safety seat advice, (b) making these locations well known to the public, and (c) increasing caregivers' perceptions of risk of misusing their children's seats.

Behavior Therapy↗

PubMed2004

The Airline Lifesaver: a 17-year analysis of a technique to prompt the delivery of a safety message.

INTRODUCTION: The Airline Lifesaver (AL) is a 13.3 cm x 9.8 cm card any passenger can deliver to the attendant of a commercial airline in order to prompt the delivery of an important safety message. In particular, the AL requests the following safety--belt reminder be added to the regular announcements given at the end of the flight-"Now that you have worn a seat belt for the safest part of your trip, the flight crew would like to remind you to buckle-up during your ground transportation." METHOD: The AL card was handed to 1,258 flight attendants over a 17-year period and compliance with the request for the safety message was systematically tracked. Slightly more than one-third of the AL cards (n=460) included an incentive for making the announcement. RESULTS: Without the incentive, compliance to give the buckle-up reminder was 35.5% of 798 flights. With the incentive, compliance was significantly higher (i.e., 53.3%). IMPACT: The validity of the AL intervention is discussed with regard to its: (a) relevance to cognitive dissonance and consistency theory, and (b) broad-based applicability as a component of community-wide efforts to facilitate a safety-focused culture. The 17-year study also demonstrated a practical and cost-effective application of a behavior-based incentive program.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Intervening to decrease alcohol abuse at university parties: differential reinforcement of intoxication level.

This quasi-experimental field study assessed whether an incentive/reward intervention can change the drinking behavior and the subsequent levels of intoxication among college students attending fraternity parties. A total of 356 blood alcohol concentration (BAC) assessments, using hand-held breathalyzers. were obtained at two baseline and at two intervention parties at the same fratenity house. At the intervention parties, the students were informed they could win a cash prize if their BAC was below .05, and they were given nomograms to aid in monitoring their levels of intoxication. Mean BAC and the percentage of partiers with intoxication levels above .05 were significantly lower at the two intervention parties. More than twice as many partygoers were legally intoxicated (i.e., BAC > .08) at the two baseline parties than at the two intervention parties. indicating a clinically significant impact of the incentive/reward intervention. Greek-life students, in particular, were significantly less intoxicated at intervention parties, compared to baseline parties (p < .001).

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Risky, aggressive, or emotional driving: addressing the need for consistent communication in research.

PROBLEM: Researchers agree that a consistent definition for aggressive driving is lacking. Such definitional ambiguity in the literature impedes the accumulation of accurate and precise information, and prevents researchers from communicating clearly about findings and implications for future research directions. This dramatically slows progress in understanding the causes and maintenance factors of aggressive driving. SUMMARY: This article critiques prevailing definitions of driver aggression and generates a definition that, if used consistently, can improve the utility of future research. Pertinent driving behaviors have been variably labeled in the literature as risky, aggressive, or road rage. The authors suggest that the term "road rage" be eliminated from research because it has been used inconsistently and has little probability of being clarified and applied consistently. Instead, driving behaviors that endanger or have the potential to endanger others should be considered as lying on a behavioral spectrum of dangerous driving. Three dimensions of dangerous driving are delineated: (a). intentional acts of aggression toward others, (b). negative emotions experienced while driving, and (c). risk-taking. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: The adoption of a standardized definition for aggressive driving should spark researchers to use more explicit operational definitions that are consistent with theoretical foundations. The use of consistent and unambiguous operational definitions will increase the precision of measurement in research and enhance authors' ability to communicate clearly about findings and conclusions. As this occurs over time, industry will reap benefits from more carefully conducted research. Such benefits may include the development of more valid and reliable means of selecting safe professional drivers, conducting accurate risk assessments, and creating preventative and remedial dangerous driving safety programs.

Accidents, Traffic↗

PubMed2003

Do the designated drivers of college students stay sober?

PROBLEM: By numerous accounts, alcohol abuse is considered the number one drug problem facing young people today. Alcohol consumption and its negative consequences, especially those due to drinking and driving, continue to have devastating effects on the college student population. METHOD: This field study examined the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels of male and female designated drivers (DD), non-DD, and their respective passengers as they were leaving drinking establishments in a university town. Also investigated were the effects of group size and gender on DD use. RESULTS: A 2 Gender x 2 Driver type (DD vs. non-DD) analysis of variance (ANOVA) for BAC indicated significant main effects for Gender and Driver type, with higher BAC for men and non-DD (p's<.001). A significant Gender x Driver type interaction (p<.05) was primarily due to female DD having lower BAC than male DD. In addition, larger groups were more likely to have a DD. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Results indicate that the success of DD programs may be influenced by group size and a DD's gender. While larger groups are more likely to have a DD, students riding home with a male DD may still be at risk for the negative consequences of drunk driving.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

A safety self-management intervention for mining operations.

PROBLEM: This quasi-experimental field study examined the efficacy of a safety self-management process to increase safety-related work practices in mining operations. METHODS: After a 7-week baseline, 15 miners participated in a safety self-management training and education presentation. The participants in a prebehavior condition (n=8) recorded their intentions to engage in specific percentages of safety-related work behaviors before starting their shift for the day. In contrast, participants in a postbehavior condition (n=7) recorded their percentages of safety-related work behaviors after their shift for the day. RESULTS: During withdrawal (4 weeks), the miners did not complete any self-monitoring forms. Based on 10,905 behavioral observations, safety self-management was effective at increasing the frequency of safety-related behavior (p<.05). For the prebehavior condition, the mean percent safe score across three target behaviors increased 34.8% during intervention. Similarly, in the postbehavior condition, the mean percent safe score across three target behaviors increased 40.1% during intervention. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: The results suggest that employees who work in relative isolation or have little oversight, compared to traditional industrial workers, may benefit from a process by which they can systematically observe themselves.

Focus Groups↗

PubMed2002

An instrumented vehicle assessment of problem behavior and driving style: do younger males really take more risks?

An instrumented vehicle was used to obtain behavioral data from 61 drivers ranging in age from 18 to 82. Each driver completed a personality questionnaire and participated in a study described as an evaluation of cognitive mapping and way-finding abilities. An evaluation of relationships between age, personality and driving style revealed that driver age and type A personality characteristics were significant predictors of vehicle speed and following distance, P < 0.05. However, contrary to the earlier research, which relies heavily on a self-reported driving criterion, no significant gender differences were obtained. A factor analysis of several at-risk driving behaviors identified a cluster of correlated driving behaviors that appeared to share a common characteristic identified as aggressive/impatient driving. It is suggested that the correlated cluster of driving behavior provide objective support for the assumptions of response generalization and problem behavior theory. Results are discussed with regard to implications for safe driving interventions and a problem behavior syndrome.

Adolescent↗