Citation

Karimi H, Soleyman-Jahi S, Hafezi-Nejad N, Rahimi-Movaghar A, Amin-Esmaeili M, Sharifi V, Hajebi A, Saadat S, Sari AA, Rahimi-Movaghar V. Traffic Injury Prev. 2017; 18(4): 393-397.

Affiliation

Sina Trauma and Surgery Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) , Tehran , Iran.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/15389588.2016.1211272

PMID

27574963

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To assess the incidence rate as well as direct and indirect costs of non-fatal road traffic injuries (RTIs) in Iran in 2011.

METHODS: Data of the 2011 national household survey was used. In this survey, data on demographics, history and costs of injury were obtained in two steps; first, direct face-to-face interview and second, telephone calls. We estimated the incidence rate of non-fatal RTIs in this year. The direct costs included medical care as well as non-medical costs paid by the patient or insurance services. The indirect costs were estimated by considering the cost of absence from work or education. We also used logistic regression analyses to investigate risk factors of non-fatal RTI.

RESULTS: We found 76 non-fatal RTI cases (0.96%) out of 7886 whole reference study cases. These 76 injured patients had a history of RTI in the preceding three months. The annual incidence of RTIs was estimated at 3.84%. The mean age of RTI cases was 28.5±10.6 and 88.16% of them were male. Male gender was a major risk factor (OR = 9.64, 95% CI: 4.79-19.41) and marriage was a protective factor (OR = 0.44, 95% CI: 0.28-0.70) for RTI. The medians of direct, indirect and total costs were 214, 163, and 387 US $, respectively. The total cost of non-fatal RTIs in Iran was estimated at 1.29% of GDP in 2011.

CONCLUSIONS: In Iran, non-fatal RTIs imposed a total cost of almost 7 billion dollars to the country for one year. Extension and more serious implementation of preventive measurements seem necessary to decrease this notable burden of the RTIs.

Language: en