Road traffic accident and associated factors among traumatized patients at the emergency department of University of Gondar Comprehensive Teaching and Referral Hospital

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Road traffic accident (RTA) is an incident on a way or street open to public traffic that becomes one of the most critical public health problem in the world especially in developing countries. According to WHO, every day more than 3000 people die from a road traffic accidents. Developing countries account for 90% of global road traffic deaths. Road traffic accidents are being the critical public health problem that causes disabilities and death in Ethiopia which could need due investigations. METHOD: a six-month institutional-based cross sectional study was used on patients visited the University of Gondar Comprehensive Teaching and Referral Hospital to determine RTA and associated factors. A semi-structured pre-tested checklist was used to gather the data on the patient´s chart systematically. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 21. RESULT: from a total of 307 traumatic patients 103(33.6%) were road traffic accident victims. The mean age of the victims was 29 (SD ±13.55). Among the victims, 40(39%) have died. Adjusting all other factors in the final model, the multivariate analysis revealed that age of injured patient AOR (95% CI) = 0.03 (0.001, 0.905), occupation AOR (95% CI) = 0.01(2.037, 92.243), month of the year AOR (95% CI) = 0.12(0.035, 0.442, and time of the day, AOR (95%CI) =0.22 (0.108, 0.459) were found significantly associated with road traffic accident. CONCLUSIONS: RTAs were found to be the major public health problem that needs due attention by the government, transport minister and federal police in collaboration.