Pre-hospital care among victims of road traffic accident in a rural area of Tamil Nadu: A cross-sectional descriptive study

Abstract

Background:The World Health Organization has estimated that globally almost 1.24 million people die annually on the world's roads. The aim of the study was to assess the attributes of pre-hospital care in road traffic accidents (RTAs) victim brought to the health care establishment and to evaluate the pre-hospital trauma care provided in the rural areas of Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu.Materials and Methods:A cross-sectional descriptive study of 3 months duration (June 2014 to August 2014) was conducted in the Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Kancheepuram. The method of sampling was universal sampling and all RTA victims satisfying the inclusion criteria were included in the study. During the entire study duration, total 200 RTA victims were included. A pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire was used to elicit the desired information after the victims of RTAs are stabilized. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Institutional Ethics Committee prior to the start of the study. Written informed consent was obtained from the study participants (patient/guardian of children) before obtaining any information from them. Data entry and statistical analysis were done using SPSS version 18. Frequency distributions and percentages were computed for all the variables.Results:Majority of the RTA victims 158 (79%) were from the age-group of 15-45 years. Most of the accidents were reported in night time [77 (38.5%)], on week-ends [113 (56.5%)], and involved two-wheelers [153 (76.5%)]. Almost 66 (33%) of the victims were not aware of the existence of emergency ambulance services. Also, only 15 (7.5%) victims were brought to the hospital in the emergency ambulance, of which only 3 victims were accompanied by a doctor.Conclusion:To conclude, the study indicates that a significant proportion of people were unaware about the emergency trauma ambulance services and the existing pre-hospital care services lack in multiple dimensions in a rural area of South India.

Prevalence of Orthopaedic Injuries Due to Road Side Accidents in East Madhya Pradesh Region of Central India

“…Similar results were obtained by many other researchers. (11,12,13,4) The data is comparable and may be attributed to bad light condition, fast and reckless driving increased traffic load and frustration of tired drivers. It was attributed to the travelling frequency and vehicle use in this region, which is maximum during this time.…”

“…Data was comparable to different studies. (11,12,13,14) Drivers were involved in higher number of cases (45%), which could be attributed to dominance of two-wheelers involved in the occurrence of the accident. Passengers were victims in 33.87%.…”

“…Similar results were found from studies from South India, Maharashtra, Nepal, Hapur, Ghaziabad, Assam, etc. (4,5,6,7,8,9,10) Other studies by Dalbir et al (11) , Shrivastava SR et al (12) , Pranab Jyoti Bhuyan et al (13) , and Manisha Ruikar. (14) showed the same results.…”

Lagos state ambulance service: a performance evaluation

“…There is a dearth of literature concerning false calls in LMICs; however, they have been identified as a challenge in an EMS study conducted in Ghana [23]. With regard to RTAs that were already addressed prior to LASAMBUS' arrival, findings in other LMICs reinforce the idea that EMS services do not account for many of the cases brought into the hospital [24]. It is important to acknowledge that not all RTAs resulted in injury and that there were also records in which the victims had already died prior to LASAMBUS' intervention.…”

A study of injury characteristics in road traffic accidents by different road user category

“…This is in concordance with other studies. [7][8][9][10] Thus, accident impacted the most productive age group with devastating consequences for family. Reckless driving and speeding in this age group is responsible for most of the accidents.…”