Sima Afrashteh - Msc of Epidemiology, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran
Fezeh Amiri - Vice-Chancellor for Public Health, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran
Leila Nami Nazari - Vice-Chancellor for Public Health, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran

Backgrounds: Road Traffic Accident (RTA) is one of the most leading causes of death worldwide, and children are among the major victims of RTAs. The present work was carried out to investigate the epidemiology of RTA-related mortality among children in Dashtestan county between 2013 and 2017.Methods: this was a descriptive cross-sectional study. the data reported in this study were collected between 2013 and 2017. All deaths due to RTAs among 1-59 month children who registered at Hospital of Dashtestan, southeast of Iran were extracted. The required data were collected using a questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using SPSS, version 16 with descriptive statistics.Results: the findings of this study revealed that a total of 18 RTA-related deaths occurred among 1-59 month children between 2013 and 2017. Males comprised about 61.1% (n=11) of the total fatalities, while females accounted for 38.8% (n=7). The mean age of the subjects was 2.22 - 1.26 years. Moreover, the highest number of accidents was reported in urban areas (68.7%).Conclusion: results of this study suggest that RTAs account for a considerable rate of accident- related mortality among children 1-59 months of age. Therefore, implementation of effective intervention as well as preventive measures such as training interventions for parents especially mothers play a significant role in reducing traffic accident-related mortality among children.

Epidemiology, Road Traafic Accident, mortality, children