Road traffic injuries and substance use in Latin America: A systematic review

Abstract

Objective The aim of the study is to identify and report the epidemiological patterns of substance use on fatal and non-fatal road traffic injuries (RTIs) in Latin America. Methods A systematic review identified all published studies from January 2010 through October 2020. Twenty-eight studies were included from PubMed and SciELO databases. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale was used to assess the methodological quality of the studies. Results The prevalence of alcohol consumption in fatal RTIs in studies where 100% of the target population were tested varies from 15.3% up to 55% in Brazil; with respect to non-fatal RTIs, it varies from 9.1% in car drivers in Brazil to 24.1% in emergency patients in Argentina. The most studied drug other than alcohol was cannabis, present in 6.5% up to 20.8% of non-fatal RTIs cases, but lower rates of testing for drugs was reported. Few studies reported epidemiological association measures. Conclusions This article shows that scientific production on substance use and RTIs in the region is limited and reports the prevalence of substance use, with few estimates of the relative risk of drug use and RTIs.