A significant reduction in road traffic injury incidence and death rates among children under the age of five has been recorded in nine years in Qatar.
The average of road traffic injury rate per 100,000 children under the age of five has decreased by 8.5 percent and road traffic injury death has reduced by 84.4%, according to a study on ‘Nine year time trend analysis of road traffic injuries and deaths among infants and toddlers in Qatar’.
The study was conducted by a team including senior officials at Hamad Medical Corporation’s Hamad Trauma Centre. The study has analysed different data between 2008 and 2017 and the findings were showcased during the recently held Qatar Public Health Conference, organised by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH).
This the first study to fully describe the epidemiology of road traffic injuries and deaths affecting the young children, under five years in Qatar.
The study has also suggested that majority of road traffic injury deaths occur in the pre-hospital setting highlighting the need for the implementation of focused primary injury prevention efforts that are proven to work for children and toddlers.
“The study’s primary objective is to describe the epidemiology of road traffic injuries in young paediatric patients in Qatar. The results of this specific analysis inform the formulation of nationwide educational and public information program on road safety for young children in Qatar and will contribute to the evidence on child health injuries from the region,” according to the study abstract.
The study was conducted as part of a large ‘Young Kids in Safe Seats’ project grant funded by National Priorities Research Program of Qatar National Research Fund.
The primary sample for this study was collected from consecutive data for all young paediatric victims of road traffic injury and road traffic injury deaths from January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2017 from the trauma registry of the Hamad Trauma Centre, which is the national level 1 trauma referral centre in Qatar, that admitted and treated all cases of serious paediatric injuries in Qatar during the period.
The study analysed information including demographics, day of injury, location, time, type and mechanism of injury vehicle occupant, type of vehicle, use of safety equipment, mode of pre-hospital transport, hospital intervention, length of stay in hospital.
The study has also analysed data from the Qatar Statistics Authority.
From January 2008 to December 2017 the Hamad Trauma Centre attended to 271 patients under age of 5, suffered severe road traffic injuries, necessitating hospital admission and 15 in hospital road traffic injury deaths were reported during the study period.
Males made up to 83.7% injured and 60% of fatalities. The average age of injured was three years and it was 2.8 for fatalities. The road traffic injury incidence rate per 10,000 reduced by almost 8.5% from 246 in 2008 to 225 in 2017. The road traffic injury mortality rate per 100,000 under five year has been reduced almost by 85% 46.3 in 2008 and 7.2 in 2017.
