Epidemiology of Fatal Traffic Injuries Registered in East Azerbaijan and Fars Forensic Medicine Organizations: The Research Protocol

Abstract

Purpose: Iran’s statistics confirmed the number of road traffic injuries (RTIs) fatalities per 10,000 motor vehicles more than four times the global average. Accounting for the leading cause of death in people under the age of fifty, fatal road traffic injuries should be of a particular concern and a research priority in Iran. Assessing the epidemiological pattern of RTIs plays a critical role in the road traffic safety promotion. Methods: The current paper aims to report a thorough research protocol on describing the methodology of a large research project on epidemiology of fatal traffic injuries in East Azerbaijan Province and Fars Province. The paper considers all fatalities due to road traffic crashes registered in forensic medicine organizations (FMOs), over a 13-year period between March 21st, 2004 and March 19th, 2016,‎ divided into four time periods. It is grounded on the time span questionnaires including crash- and victim-related data such as ‎ type of crash, type of decedent’s vehicle, counterpart vehicle, injured organs, final cause of death, ‎place of death, role of decedent in crash, mode ‎of transport, light condition, pedestrian’s cloth color, date of ‎crash, along with demographic data. The final analysis will be done using variables’ common formats based on time periods questionnaires. Conclusion: The research protocol could serve as a comprehensive resource to upcoming RTI studies based on FMOs data and could be of help for developing a domestic registry system. Considering the national structure of data collection in Iranian FMO, this protocol could even be referred at national level by studies conducted on FMO related data, regarding the methodology of research, categorizing questionnaires data, and rapid analysis.