Safety culture among Bangladeshi university students: a cross-sectional survey

Safety culture plays a significant role to reduce unintentional deaths and injuries in many industries and educational institutions especially in developing counties; however, students are more susceptible to accidents in Bangladesh, little attention has given to promote safety culture at university campuses. This study aimed to investigate the current level of safety attitude and awareness, and safety behaviors of the Dhaka University students and to examine the factors associated with the safety culture at the university campus. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 964 randomly selected students of the Dhaka University using a paper-based structured questionnaire composed of 14 items related to safety attitude and awareness, and another 14 items related to safety behaviors. The study found that the safety attitude and awareness, and safety behaviors levels of the students are not satisfactory enough. The female university students have a significantly higher level of safety culture than their male counterparts. However, we find no significant difference in the safety culture between resident and non-resident students, and among the students of different age groups, academic disciplines, and academic years. It is therefore recommended that various safety education courses, training, and awareness programs should be aimed to improve and promote safety culture at the universities in Bangladesh with special attention to male students. Further studies are needed to investigate the safety culture of school and college students in rural and urban areas of Bangladesh.