Abstract

The damages from traffic accidents are one of the main challenges in public health. Motorcycle riders are involved in more than half of the road traffic accident injuries. Human factor is important in accidents. This study was carried out to determine related factors with risky behaviors of motorcycle riders based on protection motivation theory (PMT). The cross sectional study, conducted on 221 male motorcycle riders. They used motorcycle for at least 2 hours a week. The participants were selected by cluster random sampling. The data was collected through self-report questionnaires and analyzed by T-test, correlation and regression in SPSS. The participants got 29.48 of the risky behavior score. Mostly reported risky behavior was escape due to the probability of confiscating of their motorcycles. Unsafe riding is more prevalent among young, single and unlicensed motorcycle riders. Risky motorcycle riding had positive significant association with perceived rewards and costs but it had significant indirect correlation with perceived susceptibility, severity, fear, self-efficacy, response efficacy, and protection motivation. Constructs of PMT could determine 48.6 of the variance of the unsafe behaviors. The direct role of perceived rewards (β=0.58) was more than the other constructs. The processes of the PMT could explain 48 of the variance in risky behaviors which the role of threat appraisal (β=0.35) was more than coping appraisal. PMT in predicting the risky behavior of motorcycle riders is useful. So that can be used as a framework to design education programs to reduce the number of motorcycle accidents. © 2016, International Journal of Pharmacy and Technology. All rights reserved.