5 Social factors affecting motorcyclists’ safety in Iran

<h3>Background</h3> Road traffic crash injuries are the fastest growing public health challenge in many low and middle income countries including Iran.Traffic injuries are responsible for 17.3% of death and 26% of Years of Life Lost in Iran. 1,200,000 life lost with 6 billion US$ cost, almost 5% of GNP. Motorcyclists are the most vulnerable groups among all road users. The mortality rate in this group is high, most of the victims are young and bread winners. <h3>Objective</h3> To assess epidemiology of motorcyclists’ death in 14 cities of Iran To compare motorcyclists’ mortality and morbidity in two groups of cities <h3>Methods</h3> Data was gathered through the vital registration from five sources, including: public and private hospitals, cemeteries, office of the forensic medicine organization, household visits by CHW in rural areas, data from community health volunteers and the motorcyclist’s statements and observation of the interviewers themselves. comparison of motorcyclist’s fatality in in two groups of the cities, those cities practicing intersectoral collaboration approach for the management of road traffic accident Vs those cities with no models to approach to RTI. Initial analysis produced descriptive statistics for each group. For continuous exposure data of normal distribution, a one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was used to analysis the relationship between outcome variables from each of the groups <h3>Result</h3> Young male adult of 15–40 are the most victims of motorcycle accidents in both the groups. Except the khorasan city the other cities found no differences on motorcyclists death compare to the fellow cities. 97% knew advantage of helmet, 97% owning one at least one helmet, rate of helmet usage was 13%. 74 percent of the motorcyclists in both groups believed that public education and law enforcement and accessibility to affordable helmet are the good way to promote helmet wearing rate among the riders Other suggestions were mentioned by participants including; improving helmet designing to suit the local climate and making new legislation. <h3>Conclusion</h3> Improving of helmet designing to suit the local climate, developing new legislation and accessibility of helmet with lesser price and good quality were mentioned by 39 percent of participants.