Pattern of Road Traffic Injuries and Their Pre-hospitalization Factors Reported at a Public Tertiary Healthcare Facility and Rural Private Healthcare Facility in Rajasthan, India

Neeraj Sharma; Vinod Kumar Sv; Daya K Mangal; Yogita Sharma; Mohan Bairwa; Bontha V Babu

doi:10.7759/cureus.39390

Pattern of Road Traffic Injuries and Their Pre-hospitalization Factors Reported at a Public Tertiary Healthcare Facility and Rural Private Healthcare Facility in Rajasthan, India

Cureus. 2023 May 23;15(5):e39390. doi: 10.7759/cureus.39390. eCollection 2023 May.

Authors

Neeraj Sharma¹, Vinod Kumar Sv¹, Daya K Mangal¹, Yogita Sharma², Mohan Bairwa³, Bontha V Babu²

Affiliations

¹ School of Public Health, IIHMR University, Jaipur, IND.
² Division of Socio-Behavioural, Health Systems and Implementation Research, Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi, IND.
³ Centre for Community Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, IND.

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to report the pattern of road traffic injuries (RTIs) and pre-hospitalization factors of road traffic injuries among the accident victims reported at an urban and a rural healthcare facility in the Jaipur district, Rajasthan.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary-level, urban public healthcare facility in Jaipur city and a secondary-level, rural private facility in nearby Chomu town. The study participants were all those who encountered road traffic injury and visited any of these healthcare facilities to seek care. The study tool included information on demographics, type of road user, vehicles, accidents, roads, environment, and other pre-hospitalization factors. Data collectors were nurses trained to collect data using the tablet-based application. Data were analyzed using proportions/percentages. Bivariate analysis was done to assess the significance of differences between categories of factors and between rural and urban facilities.

Results: Among 4,642 cases, 93.8% were enrolled in the urban facility, and the remaining were enrolled in the rural facility. Predominantly, males (83.9%) and young adults 18-34 years (58.9%) were reported in both study facilities. Among the accident victims reported at the urban facility, major groups were educated up to the primary level (25.1%) or graduate level (21.9%). About 60% of them were drivers. Most of these injuries occurred on urban roads (50.2%) or two-lane roads (42%). About three-fourths of the injured were using two-wheeler geared vehicles, and 46.7% were overtaking or turning the vehicle when the accident happened. The majority of cases (61.6%) did not require hospitalization. Among the rural facility participants, 27.2% were graduates, and 24.7% were below primary education. Most of these injuries happened on the national highway (35.8%) or rural roads (33.3%). Most of them used two-wheeler geared (80.1%) at the time of the accident. Most were injured while doing normal straight driving (80.5%). Most participants (80.1%) in the rural facility did not follow the traffic rules, and 43.9% required hospitalization.

Conclusion: Young males were the most affected age group by road traffic injuries. Differential patterns of road traffic injuries and pre-hospital factors were observed in urban and rural areas.

Keywords: accident; healthcare facility; india; pattern; rajasthan; road traffic injury.

Grants and funding

Funding support for the IRIS study was provided by the Indian Council of Medical Research. However, no additional funding was received for the first author’s PhD work.