Profile of the road accident cases admitted to a government Trauma Center in Kathmandu

Abstract

Background: Accidents are generally defined as unexpected, unplanned occurrences or events that may cause injuries. The objectives of this study were to identify the epidemiological features of road traffic accidents among patients attending the trauma center, in Kathmandu.

Methods: A descriptive mixed method for the study was applied to both qualitative and quantitative methods. The study was conducted from January to December, 2019 among 267 road traffic accident cases attending emergency and orthopedics wards during the study period by using semi-structured and five in-depth interviews. The convenience sampling technique was used. The relation between dependent and independent variables was shown by using the chi-square test. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant throughout the analysis in this study. The statistical analysis was done by using SPSS software version 16.0. Thematic analysis was done for In-depth interview data and appropriate verbatim was developed.

Results: Among 267 subjects, most of the subjects i.e., 140(52.4%) were in the median age group (31-45 years), 192(71.9%) were male, and 183(68.5%) were from the Hindu religion. A road traffic accident was involved in 174(65.2 percent) two-wheelers vehicles, 155(58.1%) inside Kathmandu and 152(56.9 percent) time of accidents during office time. Impacted by education status for not obeying the traffic rules p-value (0.045), the relation of occupation with drinking in driving time p-value (0.044), caste with drinking in driving time p-value 0.024 and place of an accident with time to reach hospital p-value (0.001).

Conclusions: Road traffic accident is one of the public health issues in Kathmandu, Nepal. The most common factors were found that over-speed, not obeying the traffic rules, and use of the mobile phone during driving time. The government in coordination with the private sector should implement preventive measures for reducing such problems.