Wendy Weijermars1, Niels Bos2, Ashleigh Filtness3, Laurie Brown3, Robert Bauer4, Emmanuelle Dupont5, Jean Louis Martin6, Katherine Perez7, Pete Thomas3. 1. SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research, PO Box 93113, 2509 AC Den Haag, The Netherlands. Electronic address: wendy.weijermars@swov.nl. 2. SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research, PO Box 93113, 2509 AC Den Haag, The Netherlands. 3. Loughborough Design School, Loughborough University, LE11 3TU, UK. 4. Austrian Road Safety Board(KFV), Austria. 5. VIAS Institute, Belgium. 6. IFSTTAR, Institut Français des Sciences et Technologies des transports, de l'aménagement et des réseaux, France. 7. Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona (ASPB), Spain; Institut Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau (IIB Sant Pau), Spain; CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Spain.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Information about the burden of (non-fatal) road traffic injury is very useful to further improve road safety policy. Previous studies calculated the burden of injury in individual countries. This paper estimates and compares the burden of non-fatal serious road traffic injuries in six EU countries/regions: Austria, Belgium, England, The Netherlands, the Rhône region in France and Spain. METHODS: It is a cross-sectional study based on hospital discharge databases. POPULATION: of study are patients hospitalized with MAIS3+ due to road traffic injuries. The burden of injury (expressed in years lived with disability (YLD)) is calculated applying a method that is developed within the INTEGRIS study. The method assigns estimated disability information to the casualties using the EUROCOST injury classification. RESULTS: The average burden per MAIS3+ casualty varies between 2.4 YLD and 3.2 YLD per casualty. About 90% of the total burden of injury of MAIS3+ casualties is due to lifelong consequences that are experienced by 19% to 33% of the MAIS3+ casualties. Head injuries, spinal cord injuries and injuries to the lower extremities are responsible for more than 90% of the total burden of MAIS3+ road traffic injuries. Results per transport mode differ between the countries. Differences between countries are mainly due to differences in age distribution and in the distribution over EUROCOST injury groups of the casualties. CONCLUSION: The analyses presented in this paper can support further improvement of road safety policy. Countermeasures could for example be focused at reducing skull and brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and injuries to the lower extremities, as these injuries are responsible for more than 90% of the total burden of injury of MAIS3+ casualties.
BACKGROUND: Information about the burden of (non-fatal) road traffic injury is very useful to further improve road safety policy. Previous studies calculated the burden of injury in individual countries. This paper estimates and compares the burden of non-fatal serious road traffic injuries in six EU countries/regions: Austria, Belgium, England, The Netherlands, the Rhône region in France and Spain. METHODS: It is a cross-sectional study based on hospital discharge databases. POPULATION: of study are patients hospitalized with MAIS3+ due to road traffic injuries. The burden of injury (expressed in years lived with disability (YLD)) is calculated applying a method that is developed within the INTEGRIS study. The method assigns estimated disability information to the casualties using the EUROCOST injury classification. RESULTS: The average burden per MAIS3+ casualty varies between 2.4 YLD and 3.2 YLD per casualty. About 90% of the total burden of injury of MAIS3+ casualties is due to lifelong consequences that are experienced by 19% to 33% of the MAIS3+ casualties. Head injuries, spinal cord injuries and injuries to the lower extremities are responsible for more than 90% of the total burden of MAIS3+ road traffic injuries. Results per transport mode differ between the countries. Differences between countries are mainly due to differences in age distribution and in the distribution over EUROCOST injury groups of the casualties. CONCLUSION: The analyses presented in this paper can support further improvement of road safety policy. Countermeasures could for example be focused at reducing skull and brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and injuries to the lower extremities, as these injuries are responsible for more than 90% of the total burden of injury of MAIS3+ casualties.
Authors: Periklis Charalampous; Elena Pallari; Vanessa Gorasso; Elena von der Lippe; Brecht Devleesschauwer; Sara M Pires; Dietrich Plass; Jane Idavain; Che Henry Ngwa; Isabel Noguer; Alicia Padron-Monedero; Rodrigo Sarmiento; Marek Majdan; Balázs Ádám; Ala'a AlKerwi; Seila Cilovic-Lagarija; Benjamin Clarsen; Barbara Corso; Sarah Cuschieri; Keren Dopelt; Mary Economou; Florian Fischer; Alberto Freitas; Juan Manuel García-González; Federica Gazzelloni; Artemis Gkitakou; Hakan Gulmez; Paul Hynds; Gaetano Isola; Lea S Jakobsen; Zubair Kabir; Katarzyna Kissimova-Skarbek; Ann Kristin Knudsen; Naime Meriç Konar; Carina Ladeira; Brian Lassen; Aaron Liew; Marjeta Majer; Enkeleint A Mechili; Alibek Mereke; Lorenzo Monasta; Stefania Mondello; Joana Nazaré Morgado; Evangelia Nena; Edmond S W Ng; Vikram Niranjan; Iskra Alexandra Nola; Rónán O'Caoimh; Panagiotis Petrou; Vera Pinheiro; Miguel Reina Ortiz; Silvia Riva; Hanen Samouda; João Vasco Santos; Cornelia Melinda Adi Santoso; Milena Santric Milicevic; Dimitrios Skempes; Ana Catarina Sousa; Niko Speybroeck; Fimka Tozija; Brigid Unim; Hilal Bektaş Uysal; Fabrizio Giovanni Vaccaro; Orsolya Varga; Milena Vasic; Francesco Saverio Violante; Grant M A Wyper; Suzanne Polinder; Juanita A Haagsma Journal: BMC Public Health Date: 2022-08-17 Impact factor: 4.135