FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH HOSPITAL MORTALITY DUE TO ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS AMONG PEDESTRIANS IN SOUTHERN THAILAND

Sunee Kraonual1,2, Apiradee Lim1,2 and Wichayaporn Thongpeth1

Abstract

Pedestrians who walk near roads are at increased risk for injury by vehicles. In this study we aimed to identify factors and injuries associated with road traffic accident mortality among pedestrians in southern Thailand who received medical treatment in order to inform policy makers on preventing road traffic mortality. Study subject inclusion criteria were injured pedestrians admitted to the general hospitals in five provinces of southern Thailand during 2008-2013. Injured pedestrians with unknown survival status were excluded from this study. The data were obtained retrospectively by reviewing the 2008-2013 Injury Surveillance (IS) database of the Office of Disease Prevention and Control (ODPC) Region 11. Logistic regression analysis (with significance set at p<0.05) was used to determine associations between injuries and mortality. A total of 2,777 subjects were included in the study; 59.3% males. The mean (+standard deviation) age of study subjects was 29.3 (+22.9) years. The mortality rate among study subjects was 3.6%. The factors significantly associated with mortality were: an injury time during 18:00-24:00, older age, being hit by a 4-wheeled vehicle, having penetrating or a combination of blunt and penetrating injury and having a head or neck injury italics (p <0.001). These factors need to be taken into consideration when developing programs to prevent pedestrian traffic mortality.