• Mehrdad Azmin, Ayyoob Jafari, Nazila Rezaei, Kavi Bhalla, Dipan Bose, Saeid Shahraz, Mina Dehghani, Parastoo Niloofar, Soraya Fatholahi, Javad Hedayati, Hamidreza Jamshidi, and Farshad Farzadfar.
• Non-Communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
• Arch Iran Med. 2018 Nov 1; 21 (11): 495-501.

ObjectiveDeaths due to road traffic accidents (RTAs) are a major public health concern around the world. Developing countries are over-represented in these statistics. Punitive measures are traditionally employed to lower RTA related behavioural risk factors. These are, however, resource intensive and require infrastructure development. This is a randomised controlled study to investigate the effect of non-punitive behavioural intervention through peer-comparison feedback based on driver behaviour data gathered by an in-vehicle telematics device.Design, Setting, And ParticipantsA randomised controlled trial using repeated measures design conducted in Iran on the drivers of 112 public transport taxis in Tehran province and 1309 inter-city busses operating nationwide. Driving data is captured by an in-vehicle telematics device and sent to a centrally located data centre using a mobile network. The telematics device is installed in all vehicles. Participants are males aged above 20 who have had the device operating in their vehicles for at least 3 months prior to the start of the trial.InterventionThe study had three stages: 1- Driver performance was monitored for a 4-week period after which they were randomised into intervention and control groups. 2- Their performance was monitored for a 9-week period. At the end of each week, drivers in the intervention group received a scorecard and a note informing them of their weekly behaviour and ranking within their peer group. Drivers in the control group received no feedback via short messaging service (SMS). 3- Drivers did not receive further feedback and their behaviour was monitored for another 4 weeks.Primary And Secondary Outcome MeasurePrimary outcome was changes in weekly driving score in intervention and control groups during stage 2 of intervention. Taxis and busses were analysed separately using generalised estimating equation analysis.Funding And Ethical ApprovalThis project was funded by the National Institute for Medical Research Development (Grant No.940576) and approved by its ethics committee (Code: IR.NIMAD.REC.1394.016). This trial was registered at www.irct.ir as IRCT20180708040391N1.© 2018 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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