3032.0: Monday, November 13, 2000 - Board 7

Abstract #9679

Motor vehicle crashes in Pakistan: case study from the developing world

Abdul Ghaffar, MD, MPH, MHA, Health Systems, Health Services Academy, Islamabad, Pakistan, 12-D West, Bewel Plaza, Blue area, Islamabad, Pakistan, 92-51-9222575, aghaffar@jhsph.edu and Adnan Ali Hyder, MD, MPH, PhD, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University, 615- North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205-2179.

Injuries are gaining recognition as one of the major public health concerns in the world. WHO estimates that by the year 2020, the years of healthy life lost worldwide will be equal for infectious diseases and for injuries (WHO 1999). Despite this data, injuries are not appreciated as a public health problem by the health sector in Pakistan. Limitation of knowledge, absence of reliable estimates of the current level of injuries and traditional views on health and disease are limiting factor to this understanding. To provide better estimates the study has analyzed public sector data to conduct a risk analysis for motor vehicle injuries in Pakistan, and a. To provide the secular trends for motor vehicle injuries. b. To assess the magnitude of under-reporting of motor vehicle injuries. c. To estimate the current injury risks by person kilometers traveled by type of a vehicle. The public sector records from 1956 to 1996 were scrutinized to see the trends and internal consistency and validity and made inference applying different quantitative techniques.

The results revealed that police data regarding motor vehicle crashes is under reported. The majority who got injured or died in these crashes were motor vehicle occupants followed by pedestrians. Commercial vehicles are disproportionately involved in crashes and resulting injuries and deaths. Poor enforcement of traffic laws and inadequate Emergency Medical services were the primary reasons for high number of road traffic injuries.

Learning Objectives: This presentation will facilitate the participants to: 1) understand the magnitude of the motor vehicle crash problem in developing world, 2) learn how to use public sector data sources for estimation of relatively accurate information for motor vehicle crashes

Keywords: Motor Vehicles, Injury Risk

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

The 128th Annual Meeting of APHA