Patterns of injuries and injury severity among hospitalized road traffic injury (RTI) patients in Bangladesh

Background: Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are one of the key public health issues worldwide causing 1.3 million deaths every year. This study aimed to determine the patterns of injuries due to road traffic accidents (RTAs), the severity of injuries, and factors associated with injury severity.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among RTA victims, who attended two large tertiary care hospitals located inside the Dhaka metropolitan area, through structured interview between 28 January and 22 March 2020.

Results: Among 375 RTI patients, a total of 1390 injuries were recorded among interviewed patients, yielding a mean of 3.7 injuries per patient. The most frequently injured systems were external (n = 351), lower limb (n = 235), head and neck (n = 151), and face (n = 150). The mean ISS were 20.96 ± 12.027 with a maximum of 65 and a minimum of 4. Among patients, 87 (23.20%) had a severe injury, and 37 (9.87%) patients were critically injured. A statistically significant variation in ISS was observed in ANOVA among various categories of age, education, occupation, and purpose of going outside, vehicle type and fitness, accident type, road type, times required in hospitalization, and death history (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: Our study has revealed several important findings which will help stakeholders and policymakers devise better policies to reduce RTA and RTA related injuries in Bangladesh.