Traffic Accidents and Health of the Driver

Abstract

Background: Most traffic accidents occur as a result of human factors. The drivers’ physical health is one aspect of the human factors. In order to assess the drivers’ health status, valid screening tools are needed. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to translate the Driver Medical Questionnaire (DMQ) into Persian and evaluate its psychometric properties. Patients and Methods: This was a descriptive/methodological study. The DMQ was translated from English into Persian by using the standard forward-backward translation technique. The face validity of the questionnaire was assessed using the comments of several drivers and military doctors. The reliability of the questionnaire was evaluated for internal consistency analysis using the Kuder-Richardson 21 formula as well as test-retest reliability assessment using the intraclass correlation coefficient calculation techniques. A total of 45 traffic offenders were invited to complete the pilot version of the Persian DMQ twice with a 14-day interval. Finally, the health status of 360 traffic offenders was evaluated by using the final version of the Persian DMQ. Results: The questionnaire yielded a Kuder-Richardson 21 value of 0.68, while the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.94. Approximately half (51.1%) of the participants had no health problem, 38.1% had 1 health problem, and 10.8% had 2 or more health problems. The latter group needed referrals to occupational medicine specialists. The Drivers’ health status was significantly associated with a history of accidents in the past 3 years (P = 0.01) and a history of injury-associated accidents (P = 0.001). Conclusions: The Persian version of the Driver Medical Questionnaire (PDMQ) can be used as a valid and reliable tool for the screening of drivers’ health problems. Primary prevention and health promotion could have an important role in injury prevention and reduce the rate of traffic accidents.