Hindawi BioMed Research International Volume 2018, Article ID 6971904, 10 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/6971904 Research Article Epidemiology of Traffic Fatalities among Motorcycle Users in East Azerbaijan, Iran Homayoun Sadeghi-Bazargani ,1 Bahram Samadirad ,2 and Hojjat Hosseinpour-Feizi 3 1 Road Trafc Injury Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran 2Legal Medicine Research Center, Forensic Medicine Organization, Tehran, Iran 3Department of Orthopedics, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran Correspondence should be addressed to Hojjat Hosseinpour-Feizi; [email protected] Received 24 March 2018; Revised 11 July 2018; Accepted 17 July 2018; Published 19 August 2018 Academic Editor: Eberval G. Figueiredo Copyright © 2018 Homayoun Sadeghi-Bazargani et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Te aim of this study was to determine some epidemiological aspects of motorcycle user trafc fatalities including the crash mechanisms and injury patterns in East Azerbaijan, Iran (2006-2016). Methods. A total of 1840 motorcycle user mortal cases registered in East Azerbaijan forensic medicine database, in Iran, were analyzed over the time period between March 2006 and March 2016. Te distribution and associations of both victim- and crash-related variables such as crash mechanism, types of involved vehicles, types of injuries, and demographic characteristics were investigated. Data were analyzed by Stata v.13 statistical sofware package. Results. Of the 9435 RTI deaths, 1840 (19.5%) were motorcycle users of whom 96.5% were male (mean age of 32.3 ± 18.5 years). Te majority of accident mechanisms were motorcycle-vehicle crashes (77.8%), followed by rollover (11.8%). Cars were the leading counterpart crash vehicle comprising about 34.8% of the motorcycle user mortalities. Inner city trafc injuries were the reason for 744 (40.7%) of the motorcycle user mortalities. Head trauma was the main cause of death. About 82% of the victims were motorcycle riders and the remainder were pillion passengers. A decreasing trend of fatal trafc accidents was observed over the study period for both the motorcycle user fatalities and other trafc injuries. Te percentage of motorcycle mortalities over all trafc mortalities had a decreasing trend over the past nine years from March 2007 to March 2016 reaching a fgure as low as 15.2% through the last year of study. Conclusions. Motorcycle trafc fatalities, although having a decreasing trend during the last decade with a better slope than most other trafc injuries, remain to be a major public health in north-west of Iran. Tere is a need for efective interventional programs to reduce the burden of motorcycle fatalities. 1. Introduction states/events in specifed populations, and the application of this study to prevent injuries and promote safety” [4]. Te Road trafc injuries are among the main causes of death, epidemiological aspects of injuries are not well defned in hospitalization, disability, and low socioeconomic status. Iran and other developing countries due to loss of appropriate Around 1.3 million fatal road trafc injuries and 20–50 information systems [5]. Road trafc mortality is high in million nonfatal injuries occur as a result of road trafc Iran compared to many countries in the world including crashes each year [1, 2]. Te World Health Organization states many low and middle income countries and trafc injuries in that “Without action, road trafc crashes are predicted to rise Iran are recommended to be addressed as one of the highest to become the 7th leading cause of death by 2030” and that public health priorities to be addressed efciently [2, 5–7]. In about 90% of the global road trafc mortalities occur in low most low and middle income countries, compared with high- and middle income countries (LMICs), even though these income countries, a much higher portion of the road users countrieshavegrosslyhalfoftheworld’svehicles[3]. include pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists, and nearly Injury epidemiology is defned as “the study of the half of the fatal road trafc injuries in LMICs occur among distribution and determinants of injuries and safety-related motorcyclists. It has been shown that motorcycle injuries 2 BioMed Research International are a major public health problem in eastern Mediterranean (c) Types of light conditions: day light, night, twi- region countries including Iran [8]. Despite lots of research light/dusk, and unknown. done on road trafc safety in Iran, there is a large paucity of information based on vehicle-specifc epidemiological (2) Victim-related data encompasses age, sex, educa- studies, particularly in north-west of Iran. Consequently, tional level, job, main cause of death, injured organs, collective evidence demonstrates vital need for mapping out and place of death. the multifactorial aspects of motorcycle user fatalities. Te (a) Age, sex, educational level, and job. aim of this study was to determine some epidemiological aspects of motorcycle user trafc fatalities including the crash (b) Main cause of death: head trauma, bleeding, mechanisms and injury patterns in East Azerbaijan, Iran burns, asphyxia, multiple fractures, mixed caus- (2006-2016). es, not defned, and others. (c) Injured organs: head and face, neck, chest and abdomen, upper limbs, vertebral column, 2. Methods pelvis, and lower limbs. Te current cross-sectional study was conducted in East (d) Place of death: at the crash scene, while being Azerbaijan province of Iran on trafc injury fatalities regis- transported, at hospital, at home. tered in the East Azerbaijan Forensic Medicine Organization, (e)Modeoftransport:ambulance,passerbyvehi- over a 10-year period between 21 March 2006 and 20 March cles, police, and unknown. 2016. (f) Role of car user: driver and passenger. One of the 31 provinces in Iran, East Azerbaijan prov- ince, is located in north-west of the country, with cov- In this study, the analyzed variable of light conditions was 2 erage of approximately 47,830 km ,ownsfvepercentof related to the recent seven years of the study period available the whole population of the country, and reached almost from September 23, 2009, to September 22, 2014. 3,909,652 people, according to the recent census in 2016. Data analysis was carried out using Stata 13 statistical Te province shares borders with three countries, namely, sofware package (Stata Corp, Texas). Descriptive statistics Armenia, Republic of Azerbaijan, and Autonomous Republic such as frequency, relative frequency, mean, standard devi- ofNakhchivan,aswellasthreeprovinces,Ardabil,West ation (SD), odds ratios (OR), and 95% confdence intervals Azerbaijan, and Zanjan. Tere are twenty districts in the (95% CI) were calculated. Inferential statistical methods province; the largest and most populated of which is Tabriz such as Chi-squared test and multivariate logistic regression metropolitan, being the capital of East Azerbaijan with about were also applied to assess potential associations between 1,695,000 population. It is the sixth crowded capital city of the categorical scaled variables and the predictors of prehospital country [9]. mortality (versus hospital mortality), respectively. A P-value below 0.05 was considered as the statistical Testudy’sdatasourcewastheEastAzerbaijanForensic < Medicine Organization covering the whole province. Under signifcance level through bivariate analysis and P 0.1 for Iran’s national legislation, all road trafc injury fatalities that selecting the variables to introduce into the multivariate occur within 30 days afer crash are legally forced to be regression model. In order to calculate the mortality rates the inspected on precise reasons for death via autopsy at the provincial population was averaged between the years 2006 Forensic Medicine Centers. Te forensic medicine centers in and2016tobearound3754574peopleandusedastheat- each district register such deaths and render all data to the risk population. Te study protocol was approved by the Joint lead Forensic Medicine Organization located in the capital Research Committee of Forensic Medicine and Road Trafc city, Tabriz. Injury Research Center, as well as the Regional Committee of Totally, 9435 fatal trafc injury cases had been regis- Ethics in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. tered in the East Azerbaijan Forensic Medicine Organization database,fora10-yearperiod,fromwhichanumberof1840 3. Results fatalities were motorcycle users. Te data collected at Forensic Medicine Organization A total of 9435 fatal trafc injury cases were registered in East could be categorized into following groups: Azerbaijan forensic medicine database through the Persian calendar years of 1385-1394 equivalent to the time period (1) Crash-related data consisted of crash mechanisms, between March 2006 and March 2016. Te mortality rate for crash counterparts, inner/outer city crash, and crash all trafc fatalities occurred during the 10-year period was year. calculated to be 25.1 per 100000 person-years. A total of 65 (3.5%) of motorcycle user mortalities versus 1825(24%) of (a) Crash mechanisms: crash of motorcycle-vehi- other trafc mortalities were females (P<0.001). Men were 8.6 cle, vehicle-pedestrian, rollover, crash-caused times more likely to die as a motorcycle user than other road fall, vehicle-fxed object, vehicle-animal, vehicle users