Abstract
Transport on motorcycles has grown and is widespread in Congo (Brazzaville) and several sub-Saharan Africa countries; leading to a growing incidence of traffic road injuries and fatalities. The effectiveness of helmet wearing as preventing is founded out and the laws on its promotion exist, but its prevalence remains low. In order to make commercial motorcyclists and their passengers aware of the importance of wearing a safety helmet and contribute to promoting, the study aims to determine the prevalence, the knowledge, and attitude of helmet use and attitude among motorcycle taxi drivers in Brazzaville. We performed a descriptive cross-sectional mixed-method study, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed. A total of 241 commercial motorcyclists were interviewed in their station point, near the market located in areas of the north of Brazzaville downtown. All were male with an average age of 28.6±7.1 years, 65.1% (157/241) had a previous motorcycle accident and none had a driving certificate. Ninety-one point three of the percentage had a "good level of knowledge on the helmet, their attitudes towards safety helmets use were favorable among 95.4% (230/241). Only 40.3% (97/241) of drivers wore the helmet, slightly linked to the history of police sanction (p<0,05). The study carried out a high level of knowledge, a favorable attitude towards the use of safety helmets contrasted with the low prevalence of helmet use, exposing drivers and passengers to the risk of fatal head injuries. The promotion of the wearing of safety helmets should take into account the emergence of this type of public transport, in order to address awareness and coercive actions to them.
Highlights
Public or individual transport on motorcycles has grown and is widespread in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa
Several countries have laws making the wearing of a safety helmet mandatory
Despite the existence of these restrictive laws and police sanctions reported by more than two thirds of our respondents (69.3%), the findings show a low prevalence of helmet use in several African cities
Summary
This is the case in Nigeria [1], Benin where they represented up to 83% of motorized vehicles in 1981 [2], Ghana where their number rose by 292% between 2000 and 2008 [3] and Kenya where the number rose from 57,000 in 2005 to 514,000 in 2011 representing 36.1% of vehicles [4]. Head injuries and fatalities are on the rise [6,7,8] These accidents represent the third leading cause of death from road traffic accidents in Asia, a significant share in developed countries and a growing share in Africa. Head injuries account for 88.8% of all deaths [9]
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