بررسي همه گيرشناختي تروماهاي مرتبط با وسايل نقليه در كودكان تهراني : لزوم تدوين و اجراي طرحهاي پيشگيري از تروما

Epidemiology of traffic related injuries among children in Tehran: the necessity of implementation of injury prevention protocols

Car accident is the most common cause of morbidity and disability among children in developed countries. This study was carried out to evaluate the epidemiological aspects of pediatric traffic related injuries (TRIs) in Tehran. The data of this article was adopted from the information of the National Trauma Project(DTP&ETC) which was a comprehensive study of civilian Trauma that lasted one year and ended at August 2000. All the data of Trauma patients admitted to the emergency departments of six teaching hospitals had been gathered by educated observers. Out of 7815 hospitalized trauma cases, 2226 were children and adolescents below 19 years old, of whom, 901 cases (40%) had suffered from car accident injuries.Most of the car accidents happened in the 16-18 years age group (39.2%) and boys were affected 3.5 times more than girls. Pedestrian injuries with 52.3% (471 cases) and motorcycle related accidents with 25.4% (229 cases) were the most common kinds of accidents. Thirty percent of the patients (269 cases) were injured in summer and the accidents had happened most frequently between 12a.m-6p.m.Head injury was the most common mechanism of trauma (79%) JO/lowed by lower and upper extremity injuries with 322 and 308 cases, respectively. As most pedestrian related injuries had occurred in 5-9 years old children and the most vulnerable group to motorcycle related injuries was 16-18 years old teenagers, it seems that physical separation for pedestrians and helmet use in motorcyclists could be a suitable strategy ,for decreasing TRIs--related injuries and establishing comprehensive public education programs and law enforcement strategies could alleviate the magnitude of the problem.