P06 Varied Severity of Motor Vehicle Crash Injuries Using National Dataset in Taiwan

Abstract

BackgroundInjuries by motor vehicle crashes remain the priority concern in the public-health. The aims of this study were to determine the distribution of varied severity of motor vehicle crash (MVC) injuries, and the time trend of MVC injuries by different car type between 2003 and 2010 in Taiwan. MethodsPooled data from Taiwan׳s National Traffic Accident Dataset, Taiwan׳s National Health Insurance Database, and National Register of Deaths for the year 2003 through 2010 were used. A total of 2,405,674 subjects involved in MVC events were included. The severity of MVC injuries were classified as emergency-visit only (ER-visit), hospitalization and death. Frequency counts, percentages and 95% confident interval were estimated for descriptive analyses. Mann-Kendall test was used to determine time trend of varied severity injuries by car types. ResultsIn 2010, the percentages of MVC subjects who were injured with ER-visit only, hospitalization, or death were 33.9%, 6.9% and 0.6% respectively. Vulnerable road users as cyclists and motorcyclists had highest probability of sever injury outcomes due to MVC rather than all other types of vehicle drivers. Compared with sedan drivers, cyclist had approximately 10 times more risk of ER-visit, 15 times more risk of hospitalization, 9 times more risk of death in MVC. Among motorcyclists, the risks of getting ER-visit, hospitalization, or death were 9, 11, 4 times higher than sedan drivers in MVC respectively. Over the period 2003 to 2010, the results of time trend test showed that the percentage of hospitalization or death among drivers of MVC had significantly decreased with years, however, the ER-visit utilization increased from 26.2% in 2003 to 34.0% in 2010. After stratification of car types, the ER-visit utilization among cyclist and motorcyclist of MVC remains significantly increased by years. ConclusionsThe evidences presented that the severity of MVC occurred from cyclists and motorcyclists is the major problems of motor vehicle crashes in Taiwan. Therefore, governments and health care providers to address on motorists and cyclist safety education, and to allocate an appropriate level of medical resources in order to effectively deal with different injury severity patterns.