525 Road traffic injuries in Bangladesh: an explorative study from a national survey

<h3>Backgrounds</h3> Road traffic injuries (RTIs) is a neglected public health problem in Bangladesh due to lack of valid and reliable data. Almost 90% of all RTI deaths occur in LIMCs. RTI is one of the leading causes of fatal and non-fatal in Bangladesh. The World Health Organization (WHO, 2015) estimated that it kills over 21,000 people in the country annually. <h3>Objective</h3> The study aims at exploring the epidemiological burden of both non-fatal and fatal RTIs in Bangladesh. <h3>Methods</h3> The nationwide cross-sectional study, the Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey (BHIS), was conducted in 16 randomly selected districts of Bangladesh from March to June 2016. It utilized a pretested semi-structured questionnaire to evaluate annual fatal and non-fatal injury outcomes, specifically focusing on socio-demographic characteristics at the household level. The sampling technique utilized a multistage cluster method considering probability-proportional-to-size strategy was used to select a total of 299,216 household residents. Among them, 106,233 individuals (35.50%) were from urban areas, while 192,983 individuals (64.50%) were from rural areas. Data was collected on tablets using customized data entry program. The verbal autopsy method was used to determine the cause of both mortality and morbidity. <h3>Result</h3> Mortality and morbidity rates due to RTI were 14.37 (95%CI;10.67–19.35) and 2164.32 (95%CI;2113.00–2217.00) per 100,000 per year respectively. The highest incidence rate of fatal RTI [21.89 (95%CI;09.35–51.25)] was found among &gt;60 years’ people while non-fatal RTI rate was highest among 25–59 years’ age group [2702.51 (95%CI;2618–2789)]. Both fatal and non-fatal rates were significantly higher among males [22.79 (16.32–31.85)] than females [6.03 (3.17–11.47)], but there was no significant difference of RTI rates between urban and rural people. Most of the fatal and non-fatal RTIs occurred in daytime between 9:00am-12:00pm and 12:0pm-15:00pm respectively. Seat-belt usage was found in 2.1% of drivers, while 28% of motorcyclists were found to be wearing helmets. Additionally, 4.50% of drivers were using mobile phones, and 3.8% of both drivers and motorcyclists were identified as drug-addicted at the time of the accident. <h3>Conclusion</h3> The magnitude of fatal and non-fatal RTIs was remarkably high in Bangladesh. People aged 25 to 60 years were the most vulnerable group.