Title : Magnitude of road traffic accidental related death among adult emergency visited patients at Alert hospital: A 2 year retrospective review study (2019-2020)
Abstract:
Background: In low-income countries, Road Traffic Accident-related death remains high. This describes that Road Traffic Accident is a major public health challenge and the problem is increasing from time to time in resource-limited countries. The most economically active age groups (18-50 years) are at the greatest risk of dying as a result of Road Traffic Accident. This affects economically, social, and political stability of the countries. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the magnitude of Road Traffic Accident-related death among patients who visited the Adult Emergency Department at All Africa Leprosy, Tuberculosis, Rehabilitation, and Training Center Hospital.
Methodology: A two-year Hospital based cross-sectional study design was applied from April 1 to May 30, 2021 to review charts of Road Traffic Accident victims who visited ALERT Hospital. A total of 172 Road Traffic Accident patients presented Emergency Department; One hundred fifty-five patient charts were reviewed using the convenience method. Data was collected by using a structured checklist. Descriptive statistics like frequencies, percentage, means, standard division, and proportion were computed for selected variables and analyzed by using SPSS version 21.
Result: The magnitude of road traffic accident injury-related death was 27 (17.4 %) [95% CI, 11.0 - 23.9%], of them 12(44.4%) were drivers, 11(40.7%) were pedestrians and 4 (14.9%) were passengers. More than half 93 (60.0%) of the victims were male with a male-to-female ratio of 1.5:1. The majority (50.3%) of victims' age fell between 21-40 years with a mean of 37.8 (SD +18.2) respectively. Nearly one-third (27.1%) of victims' had more than six family sizes. The commonest occupational statuses of victims were taxi drivers 35(22.6%). Most of the accidents happened off-road 90(58.1%) by collisions with vehicles 80(51.6%). Nearly half (46.5%) of drivers were drinking alcohol while driving. Twenty-three (14.8%) of drivers used appropriate seat belts during driving. Nearly half (46.5%) of the drivers had a driving experience of fewer than three years.
Conclusion and Recommendation: Road traffic injury-related mortality rate was high. Results reported in this study suggest the need for immediate and fast action to be taken to save lives that are occurring on the roads. In particular, there is a fast need to introduce road safety interventions to decrease public health hazard that is affecting the lives of economically productive age group.
Key words: Death, Road traffic accident, Emergency department, ALERT Hospital, Ethiopia
