Investigation of the Role of Traffic Police Function in Reducing Geographical Inequalities in Mortality from Road Traffic Accidents

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences

2 Department of Epidemiology, Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Research Center, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences

3 Department of Epidemiology, School of Paramedical Science, School of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences

4 Legal Medicine Research Center, Legal Medicine Organization, Tehran, Iran

10.4103/atr.atr_46_18

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Road traffic accident (RTA) is one of the major public health problems. Inequality in this problem and its
trend has not been yet investigated in Iran. A better understanding of different contributing factors to RTA like inequalities can be helpful to
reduce the negative influence of road crashes. Hence, this study aimed at examining geographical inequality in mortality from RTAs over the
previous decades. Materials and Methods: In this cross‑sectional study, all people who died from RTAs from March 2006 to February 2015
were selected. The data were taken from Legal Medicine Organization in Iran. The Theil index was used to estimate geographical inequality
in mortality from RTA. Data were then analyzed using the Stata software. Results: During the 10‑year period of this study, 210,582 people
in Iran died due to RTA. The mortality rate that caused by RTAs has decreased during the study. We found a larger reduction in a mortality
rate in suburban RTAs. In spite of the reduction in RTAs death, geographical inequality increased during the 10‑year study. Conclusions: The
findings of this study indicate that there is a geographical inequality in mortality from RTAs in Iran. This implies that effective interventions
in reducing the RTAs should be distributed equally among regions of the country. Further research can be performed to investigate the causes
of this inequality.

Keywords

References

1. Sheng E. Statistical Analysis of Motor Vehicle Crash in Texas [MSc Thesis]. San Antonio: University of Texas and San Antonio; 2017.
2. Chen H, Du W, Li N, Chen G, Zheng X. The socioeconomic inequality in traffic‑related disability among Chinese adults: The application of concentration index. Accid Anal Prev 2013;55:101‑6.
3. Ameratunga S, Hijar M, Norton R. Road‑traffic injuries: Confronting disparities to address a global‑health problem. Lancet 2006;367:1533‑40.
4. Soori H, Ainy E, Bazargan‑Hejazi S. Opportunities, threats and barriers to enacting mandatory child car restraint laws in Iran. Int J Inj Contr Saf Promot 2015;22:314‑9.
5. Sadeghi‑Bazargani H, Ayubi E, Azami‑Aghdash S, Abedi L, Zemestani A, Amanati L, et al. Epidemiological patterns of road traffic crashes during the last two decades in Iran: A review of the literature from 1996 to 2014. Arch Trauma Res 2016;5:e32985.
6. Zimmerman K, Jinadasa D, Maegga B, Guerrero A. Road traffic injury on rural roads in Tanzania: Measuring the effectiveness of a road safety program. Traffic Inj Prev 2015;16:456‑60.
7. World Health Organization. World report on road traffic injury prevention– main messages 2016. Available from: http://www.who.int/ mediacentre/factsheets/fs358/en/. [Last accessed on 2017 Apr 16].
8. Toroyan T. Road traffic injury prevention receives boost from Bloomberg Family Foundation. Injury Prev 2007;13:431-6.
9. Akbari ME, Naghavi M, Soori H. Epidemiology of deaths from injuries in the Islamic Republic of Iran. East Mediterr Health J 2006;12:382‑90.
10. Izadi N, Najafi F, Khosravi A, Hashemi‑Nazari SS, Salari A, Soori H. Estimation of mortality and calculated years of lost life from road traffic injuries. J Mazandaran Univ Med Sci 2014;23:1‑10.
11. Naghavi M, Shahraz S, Bhalla K, Jafari N, Pourmalek F, Bartels D, et al. Adverse health outcomes of road traffic injuries in Iran after rapid motorization. Arch Iran Med 2009;12:284‑94.
12. Murray CJ, Vos T, Lozano R, Naghavi M, Flaxman AD, Michaud C. Disability‑adjusted life years (DALYs) for 291 diseases and injuries in 21 regions, 1990‑2010: A systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2010. Lancet 2012;380:2197‑223.
13. Bhalla K, Naghavi M, Shahraz S, Bartels D, Murray CJ. Building national estimates of the burden of road traffic injuries in developing countries from all available data sources: Iran. Inj Prev 2009;15:150‑6.
14. Arcaya MC, Arcaya AL, Subramanian SV. Inequalities in health: Definitions, concepts, and theories. Glob Health Action 2015;8:27106.
15. Jones AP, Haynes R, Kennedy V, Harvey IM, Jewell T, Lea D. Geographical variations in mortality and morbidity from road traffic accidents in England and Wales. Health Place 2008;14:519‑35.
16. Hosking J, Ameratunga S, Exeter D, Stewart J, Bell A. Ethnic, socioeconomic and geographical inequalities in road traffic injury rates in the Auckland Region. Aust N Z J Public Health 2013;37:162‑7.
17. Mirzaei M, Mirzadeh M, Shogaei Far H, Mirzaei M. Trends in road traffic deaths in Yazd, Iran, 2004–2010. Arch Trauma Res 2016;5:e29266. 18. Soori H, Royanian M, Zali AR, Movahedinejad A. Road traffic injuries in Iran: The role of interventions implemented by traffic police. Traffic Inj Prev 2009;10:375‑8.
19. Bahadorimonfared A, Soori H, Mehrabi Y, Delpisheh A, Esmaili A, Salehi M. Trends of fatal road traffic injuries in Iran (2004‑2011). PLoS One 2013;8:e65198.
20. Rasouli MR, Nouri M, Zarei MR, Saadat S, Rahimi‑Movaghar V. Comparison of road traffic fatalities and injuries in Iran with other countries. Chin J Traumatol 2008;11:131‑4.
21. Weiss SJ, Ellis R, Ernst AA, Land RF, Garza A. A comparison of rural and urban ambulance crashes. Am J Emerg Med 2001;19:52‑6.
22. Muelleman RL, Mueller K. Fatal motor vehicle crashes: Variations of crash characteristics within rural regions of different population densities. J Trauma 1996;41:315‑20.
23. Muelleman RL, Walker RA, Edney JA. Motor vehicle deaths: A rural epidemic. J Trauma 1993;35:717‑9.
24. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Traffic Safety Facts, 2001. Overview. National Center for Statistics and Analysis; 2001.
25. Maio RF, Green PE, Becker MP, Burney RE, Compton C. Rural motor vehicle crash mortality: The role of crash severity and medical resources. Accid Anal Prev 1992;24:631‑42.
26. Sivak M, Schoettle B, Minoda T, Flannagan MJ. Potential visibility gains on straight and curved roads from proportional increases in low-beam headlamp intensities. Lighting Research & Technology 2006;38:259-66.
27. Boland M, Staines A, Fitzpatrick P, Scallan E. Urban‑rural variation in mortality and hospital admission rates for unintentional injury in Ireland. J Epidemiol Community Health 2005;59:551‑7.
28. Noland RB, Quddus MA. A spatially disaggregate analysis of road casualties in England. Accid Anal Prev 2004;36:973‑84.
29. Graham DJ, Glaister S. Spatial variation in road pedestrian casualties: the role of urban scale, density and land‑use mix. Urban Stud 2003;40:1591‑607.
30. Borrell C. Methods in Social Epidemiology. J Michael Oakes and Jay S Kaufman. International journal of Epidemiology. 2006;36:1153-4.

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 28 May 2018
  • Accept Date: 28 May 2018

Share

How to cite

Statistics