Burden of road traffic injuries in north east of Iran: result of population-based survey

Background and purpose:Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are an important public health problem around the world, with the majority of RTIs occurring in low- and middle-income countries. The aim of this study was to determine disability-adjusted life years (DALY) of road traffic injuries in north east of Iran.Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, we used the death registration system to calculate years of life lost (YLL) due to road traffic injuries. To determine the years lost due to disability (YLD), hospital records of all people injured in road accidents were used. To estimate DALY, we used YLD and YLL to calculate DALY according to Global burden of disease (GBD) 2003 guideline and age and sex composition of the population was taken from Statistical Center for 2016. All data collected entered into Excel software and performed calculations.Results: Our findings showed that a total of 3403 accident-related injuries and 132 deaths were recorded in 2016. The DALY was 38 per 1,000 of which 26.9 per 1,000 were related to YLL and 11.1 per 1,000 were related to YLD. The highest YLL rate in both sexes was in the 15-29 and 30-44 age groups with 49.8 per 1,000 and 46.0 per 1,000, respectively. This reflects a sex ratio of DALY in males (57.7 per 1,000) to females (8.6 per 1,000) were 6.7.Conclusions: It seems to be necessary appropriate effective intervention programs and periodic evaluation are required to regarding prevention and reduction traffic accidents mostly in middle-aged men.