In 2005, the townships and districts of Fongbin, Hualian County (a littoral aboriginal community), Dungshr, Taichung County (a agriculture community), Alishan, Chiayi County (a mountainous community), and Neihu, Taipei City (a urban community) were designated by World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Community Safety promotion, as the 91st-94th safe communities in the world. Overseas studies have shown that the safety knowledge, attitudes, and practice of residents from designated safe communities are significantly different from residents of undesignated communities. It is therefore of interest to see whether the same differences can be demonstrated between safe communities and control communities in Taiwan.The current study used three districts of Taipei City as an example of a safe community (Neihu District), a prospective safe community (Zhongzheng District), and a control community (Nangang District) in order to compare differences in the residents’ safety knowledge, attitudes, and practice within these three districts. The study was conducted using questionnaire surveys; the questionnaires were distributed to the residents of each district when they visited their district administration centers for civil services. Altogether 670 questionnaires were recovered, including 222 from the Neihu District, 213 form the Zhongzheng District, and 235 from the Nangang District. The response rate was 74%.Data analysis was performed using SPSS software 14.0, and analysis was performed using descriptive statistical methods (i.e., percentages, means, and standard deviations) and inferential statistical methods (i.e., the Chi-square test, Pearson correlation and multivariate analysis of variance [MANOVA]).
