Traffic injury in northern Thailand in 2011-2013: A cross sectional survey

Abstract

Thailand has been facing traffic injuries problem leads to spending large amounts of money on medical and public health resources every year. A cross-sectional study design aimed to explain the characteristics of traffic injury in northern Thailand during 2011-2013. Subjects were recruited from 8 hospitals and 7 police stations from northern Thailand. Data regarding to age, sex, religion, marital status, year of getting injury, time of getting injury, type of vehicles, alcohol used, hospital admission, medical cost, treatment outcomes, and favorite areas of injury occurrences were collected. Totally 35,925 caseswere reported between 2011 and 2013 from eight hospitals in northern Thailand. The majority age was 16-25 years old (28.0%), followed by 26-35 years old (17.4%). The peak period of traffic injuries occurred in two episodes; December to January (32.8%), and April to May (36.7%). The major vehicle was motorcycle (78.9%), and followed by car and truck (21.1%). 29.3% had been admitted in a hospital, and 82.3% were admitted at a hospital less than 7 days, and 82.0% were having a medical cost ≤ 5,000 baht. Regarding data from seven police stations: 2,339 cases were collected for the analysis. 71.4% were males, 27.6% were aged 16-25 years old, 60.9% were married, 92.0% were Buddhists. The main type of vehicle was a car (56.6%), 67.3% had their injury on the highways, 60.7% had injury during the daytime (06.00 am.-06.00 pm.), and 13.1% drank alcohol. There was no information linking system between a hospital and a police station. Thailand needs effective and specific health promoting programs for reducing the traffic accident particularly in young adults (16-25 years old) populations.