Comparison of the Some Epidemiological Characteristics of Road Traffic Accidents Hotspots in East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, and Ardabil Provinces, Northwestern Iran (2016 - 2019)

Background: Road traffic accidents (RTAs) are the eight leading cause of mortality worldwide and the majority of victims are under the age of 40. A disproportionate number of mortalities happen in low-and middle-income countries. This study aimed to compare some epidemiological characteristics of RTAs hotspots in East Azerbaijan (EA), West Azerbaijan (WA), and Ardabil (Ar) Provinces.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, information of a total of 7,218 RTAs of Tabriz-Azarshahr (EA), Urmia-Khoy (WA), and Ardabil-Moghan (Ar) suburban hotspots reported in road traffic injury Database, were analyzed during the March 2016 and March 2019. The distribution of both crash- and environment-related variables containing outcome, light condition, weather condition, crash mechanism, and road surface were investigated. Analyses were performed using Stata 13 statistical software package Results: of the 7218 RTAs during the last three years, 248 (3.4) were fetal crashes. Urmia-Khoy, Tabriz-Azarshahr, and Ardabil-Moghan hotspots accounts for 3116 (43.2%), 2400 (33.3%), and 1702 (23.7) of the RTAs, respectively. The majority of traffic collisions in Urmia-Khoy hotspots (60.2%) resulted in injury or death, while the majority of traffic accidents were property-damage-only crashes in Tabriz-Azarshahr (58.5%) and Ardabil-Moghan (70.0 %) roads. Morning was the most common time (59.7%) for RTAs. About three-fourths of accidents occurred in clear weather. The majority of accident mechanism were vehicle-vehicle crashes (45.2%), followed by rollover (17.8%). Vehicle-vehicle crash was higher in Tabriz- Azarshahr (55.3%) road as compared to two other roads, and rollover was higher in Ardabil-Moghan road (28.0%) as compared to two other roads. Dry road surface account for about 80 % of RTAs through the last three years in the study roads. The percentage of RTAs were 41.01% between March 2016 and March 2017, decreased to 21.5% between March 2017 and March 2018 and then increased to 37.84% between March 2018 and March 2019.Conclusion: RTAs with jagged trend during the last three years remain to be a major public health problem in north-west of Iran. There is a need for offering training programs and improving road quality in hot spots to decrease the burden of RTAs in this area.

Keywords:

Road Traffic , Accidents , Epidemiology