Accidents, Traffic ; statistics & numerical data ; China ; Humans ; Wounds and Injuries ; epidemiology

Accidents, Traffic ; mortality ; statistics & numerical data ; Humans ; Research

Head injury is a leading cause of death and disability in Korea. It usually results from an avoidable accident. Epidemiologic data on the head injury is important for the effective reduction of this controllable disaster. The aim of this study is to estimate the incidence of head injury in Korea. Data on the incidence of the traffic accidents were collected from Traffic Accident Statistics 1998 by the National Police Agency. Proportion of head injuries due to traffic accidents was obtained from various literatures. The incidence of head injury was approximated simply by a formula H=T/0.625 [the total number of patients after traffic accidents (T) would be 62.5% of the total number of patients with head injury (H)]. In 1998, the estimated number of head injury was 109,462. The annual incidence was 236/100,000 person, 334/100,000 for males and 136/100,000 for females. The causes were road traffic accident in 62.5%, and falls in 15.6%. The operation was performed in 20.2% with a mortality of 4.0% in average. Case fatality rate was 8.2%. Annual death rate was 19/100,000 population. A public campaign is required on the basis of trustworthy epidemiologic data to reduce the incidence of head injury for the public health.
Accidents, Traffic/*statistics & numerical data ; Craniocerebral Trauma/*epidemiology ; Female ; Human ; Incidence ; Korea/epidemiology ; Male

OBJECTIVETo analyze and summarize the secular trend and influencing factors of road traffic injuries(RTI) in China, so as to provide evidence for the management of traffic safety.

METHODSIndexes as fatalities per 10,000 vehicles, fatalities per 100,000 population, fatalities per 10,000 kilometers, motorization(number of vehicles per 1000 population) and mortal coefficient were used. Clustering analysis and ranking correlation were used to analyze the relative factors.

RESULTSThe number of casualties of RTI had doubled every decade before the year of 2000. One hundred thousand people were killed in RTI every year since 2000. Facts as: Gross National Product(GNP) of China exceeded 1000 USD in 2002, number of motor vehicles reached 1.3 million in 2005, had both influenced the rates of road traffic fatality, mileage fatality and mortal coefficient which causing them to drop since 2002. In China, RTI happened in the underdeveloped districts in the western part of the country including Tibet, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, and in some coastal areas as Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces. Men seemed to be more at risk than women in RTI, and accounted for three-quarters of the victims. Majority of fatalities happened in 21-50 year olds and the fatalities among those over 65 year olds had risen every year. The vulnerable populations in road-user category were pedestrians, passengers, motorcyclists and bicyclists. Under most situations, drivers were responsible for RTI and over half of them were professionals. Bad behaviors were the major causes of RTI, including exceeding the speed limit, handle misfeasance, breaking traffic rules and regulation, having taken alcohol or driving with fatigue etc. Exceeding the speed limit was the most risky factor which causing 75% of the RTI and the traffic deaths increased between 2002 to 2004. A positive correlation was discovered between population fatality rate and the factors as the number of vehicles, volume of road haulage, volume of passengers and the degree of highway etc. with correlation coefficients as r1 = 0.986, r2 = 0.986, r3 = 0.987, r4 = 0.985, P = 0.001, respectively.

CONCLUSIONSince 1951, the population fatality rate of RTI had been going up continuously until it began to fall in 2003.

Accidents, Traffic ; mortality ; statistics & numerical data ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Wounds and Injuries ; mortality

OBJECTIVETo analyze the characteristics and causes of motorcycle accidents in China from 2000 to 2005.

METHODSWe collected data on possession of motorcycles and automobiles, number of traffic crashes, casualty and economic loss from 2000-2005 Statistic Annual Report of Traffic Management Bureau, Ministry of Public Security of China. The data was processed statistically by SPSS 11.0 software package.

RESULTSDuring 6 years, the number of motorcycle accidents were up to 122,300 in 2003, which was the highest, and then gradually decreased. However, the casualty had the tendency of consistent increase, for example, the motorcycle accidents resulted in 26,200 deaths and 157,500 injuries in 2005. The mortality per 10, 000 motorcycles and the ratio of deaths to injuries were lower than those of automobiles, but the mortality per 100 motorcycle accidents was significantly higher than that of automobiles (P less than 0.01).

CONCLUSIONSChina has attached great importance to the management of traffic safety, which is beneficial to control and reduce traffic accidents in recent years. However, the casualty keeps increasing annually. Therefore, it is urgent to strengthen the management of motorcycles, promote the education of motorcyclists, take effective traffic measures and improve the first-aid system of traffic injuries.

Accidents, Traffic ; statistics & numerical data ; Automobiles ; China ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Motorcycles ; Time Factors

In Japan prior to 1990s, the national scale of head trauma statistics are only available by the Institute for Traffic Accident Research and Data Analysis. But these have limited data confined to traffic accident trauma by three classification system; death, severe trauma and minor trauma. In the need for easy accessibility of nationwide trauma data, the Japan Neurotrauma Data Bank (JNTDB) Committee was founded within the Japan Society of Neurotraumatology in 1997. The committee carried out the first pilot study involved by 10 medical institutions nationwide to evaluate traumatic brain injury in Japan. In project 1998 of JNTDB, original data sheet with 392 items including etiology of injury, pre-hospital care, initial treatment including neuro-intensive care unit, and surgical treatment, were created. As "Project 1998", the analysis results have been published in Japan Neurosurgical Society journal. The "Project 2004" was a clinical research on severe head injury cases that have been registered from July 2004 to June 2006. In 2005, one week study of the JNTDB was conducted to elucidate the actual status of head injury in Japan. In the history of during 15 years, JNTDB produced many clinical outputs: 10 presentations on neuroscience conferences and 69 review articles on the famous journals. Consideration of history and achievements of JNTDB suggests guidance to further refinement and direction of future development of Korean Neurotrauma Data Bank. Nationwide and international trauma data bank will be very valuable as a study guide or basic data of the project activities in the future.
Accidents, Traffic ; Brain Injuries ; Classification ; Congresses as Topic ; Craniocerebral Trauma ; Japan* ; Neurosciences ; Pilot Projects ; Statistics as Topic

Accidents, Traffic ; statistics & numerical data ; China ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Wounds and Injuries ; epidemiology

OBJECTIVETo make an epidemiological analysis of the effect of environment on extremely severe road traffic crashes (RTCs).

METHODSEpidemiologic data of extremely severe RTCs associated with environmental factors, including weather, topography, road conditions and other traffic conditions in Mainland China during 2000-2001, were collected and analyzed.

RESULTS(1) During 2000-2001, there were 3365 extremely severe RTCs with 13666 deaths, 12204 injuries and a direct economical loss of 136 million RMB. (2) Most extremely severe RTCs occurred in fine weather days and in the daytime. The high occurrence sites were plain areas, horizontal and straight roads, Grade B and C roads, ordinary road segment, and asphalt, smooth and mixed roads. (3) Compared with other RTCs, extremely severe RTCs were more likely to happen under following conditions: on cloudy, snowing, misty and blustering days; in hill and mountainous areas; on crooked and sloping roads; on freeway, Grade A, B, and C roads; mixed roads; ordinary, bridge, narrow and transitional roads; sand and dirt-roads; without traffic control measures; night without lighting. (4) Extremely severe RTCs of mountainous area or crooked and sloping roads were most severe in terms of deaths and injures per crash.

CONCLUSIONSExtremely severe RTCs are closely related with environmental factors. Rational road programming, enhancing road establishment and improving road conditions are probably effective measures to reduce the road traffic injuries.

Accidents, Traffic ; mortality ; statistics & numerical data ; China ; Environment ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies

Accidents, Traffic ; statistics & numerical data ; China ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Wounds and Injuries ; epidemiology

Accidents, Traffic ; statistics & numerical data ; Adult ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Wounds and Injuries ; epidemiology ; surgery