Road traffic injuries surveillance - a pilot study in the Republic of Moldova

Abstract

Introduction. Road injury is a worldwide public health problem. More than 1.3 million people die and 20-50 million are injured annually, at the global level, as a result of the injuries caused by road crashes. It is the basic cause of the mortality of young people aged 15-29 years. Road injury is ranked ninth after the main causes of death and is forecast to rank fifth by 2030. The Government of the Republic of Moldova elaborates the National Strategy for Road Safety 2011 -– 2020 , which is a document of coherent and unitary policies in the field of road safety in the Republic of Moldova, in the long term, which appeared as a result of the unsatisfactory results of the existing policies in the field along with an imposed number of road injuries registered. Aim of the study. The aim of the study was to evaluate the morbidity indicators through injuries caused by road crashes among the population of the Republic of Moldova. Materials and methods. A prospective study was performed during 2018 within Emergency Departments of 2 medical institutions from Chisinau municipality: Emergency Medicine Institute and Children's hospital “Valentin Ignatenco”. A pilot iCREATE Injury Registry was tested. A total number of 7301 patients with different types of injuries reported. The Redcap electronic tool was used to upload the data and SPSS for data analyzes. The ethics committee's approval has been obtained. Results. There have been 324 (4,4%) cases of injury which reported traffic-related mechanism; aged between 0-91 years old, of which 63% were male and 37 female. In 75,3% of cases occurred in the urban area and in 93,8% of cases injuries were within the transport area. As a result of road injury, 71% of patients had by one distinct injury and 29% - with 2 one. From the total number, 5,3% cases were with Traumatic Brain Injury diagnoses, form those: 64,7% concussion, 29,4% cerebral laceration, contusion and other intracranial injuries to the head and 5,9% fracture of the skull. Most injuries were unintentional statements. In half of the injuries the type of transport involved in was light motor-vehicle and in 13,4% with two-wheeled motor vehicle. The majority of injured persons were drivers (36,1%), pedestrian (29,8%) and passengers (29,1%). For half of the patients, it was unknown if the seatbelt was used, 14% did not, while only 36% - use the seatbelt. Child safety restraints were used in only 17%, in 76%-not known and in 7% -not used. Most cases were registered in June (13,3% cases), March and October (by 11,6% each). Conclusions. The results of the study revealed the main indicators needed to be evaluated, which are necessary to argue for the need for a national trauma registry. Meanwhile, the obtained data will be useful resources for conducting information campaigns among the highrisk groups.