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Original article
Epidemiology and mapping of serious and fatal road traffic injuries in Guyana: results from a cross-sectional study
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  1. Conor M McWade1,2,
  2. Melanie A McWade1,3,
  3. D Alex Quistberg4,5,
  4. Candace D McNaughton6,
  5. Li Wang7,
  6. Zulfikar Bux6,8,
  7. Nicolas P Forget1,6,8
  1. 1Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
  2. 2School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
  3. 3Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
  4. 4Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
  5. 5Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
  6. 6Department of Emergency Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
  7. 7Department of Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
  8. 8Accident & Emergency Department, Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, Georgetown, Guyana
  1. Correspondence to Conor M McWade, Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health, 2525 West End Avenue, Suite 750, Nashville, TN 37203, USA; conor.m.mcwade{at}vanderbilt.edu

Abstract

Objective To describe the epidemiology of Guyana's road traffic injuries and perform the first geocoding of road traffic injuries in this setting.

Methods This was a registry-based retrospective cross-sectional study investigating collisions resulting in serious and fatal injuries. Police reports from two police divisions were used to identify victim, second party (ie, non-victim) and collision characteristics of all serious and fatal collisions between January 2012 and June 2015. Collisions with available location data were geocoded using Geographic Information Systems. Distributions of characteristics were compared for urban and rural areas. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess variables associated with fatal collisions.

Results The study included 751 collisions, resulting in 1002 seriously or fatally injured victims. Fatally injured victims tended to be older, male and either pedestrians or cyclists. Fatal collisions tended to take place in rural areas, occur on weekends and involve speeding. Fifty-three per cent of fatalities occurred due to non-motorised road users being struck by motorised road users, and the most common fatal collision type was between pedestrians and motor vehicles (35%). The distribution of collisions was similar for urban (43.8%) and rural (56.2%) areas. Fatal collisions were more likely to occur in rural settings.

Conclusions Road traffic injuries pose a considerable public health burden in Guyana. These results suggest a pattern of high mortality in rural collisions and a disproportionate burden of injuries on vulnerable road users. The spatial distribution of collisions should be considered in order to target interventions and improve road traffic safety.

https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2016-042119

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors All authors contributed to manuscript writing and gave final approval for publication. CMM, DAQ, NPF and ZB: conception and design. CMM, MAM and ZB: acquisition of data. LW, CDM, DAQ, CMM and NPF: analysis and interpretation. MAM: GIS spatial analysis and visualisation.

    • Funding The project described was supported by the National Center for Research Resources, Grant UL1 RR024975-01, and is now at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Grant 2 UL1 TR000445-06. The work was also supported in part by CTSA award No. UL1TR000445 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and by K23HL125670 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The travel expenses for this project were supported by the Nichols Humanitarian Fund of Vanderbilt University and scholarships from the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health.

    • Disclaimer The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH or National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Ethics approval : The study was approved by both the Vanderbilt University IRB (#150588) and the Guyanese Ministry of Health Ethics Review Committee.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement Raw data are securely kept with the first author of the study.