THE BURDEN OF ROAD TRAFFIC INJURIES IN NIGERIA RESULTS OF A POPULATION BASED SURVE Y.

. Road traffic injury was defined as any physical body damage resulting from a mot or resulting from a motor vehicle crash, being hit by a motor vehicle or other t ransport mechanism in the past 12 months. The mortality from road traffic injuries in sub-Saharan Africa is among the high est in the world, yet data from the region are sparse. The study was intended to explore the epidemiology of road traffic injuries in Nigeria and to provide dat a on the population affected and risk factors for road traffic injury. Road traffic injury status and demographic information were collected on 3082 re spondents living in 553 household in seven of Nigeria 37 states and passions reg ression analysis was used to calculate risks for associated factors. The overall road traffic injury rate was 41 per 1000 population (95% CI 34 to 49 ), and mortality from road traffic injuries was 1.6 per 1000 population (95% CI 0.5 to 3.8). Motorcycle crashes accounted for 54% of all road traffic injuries. The road traffic injury rates found for rural and urban respondents were not sig nificantly different. Increased risk of injury was associated with male gender a mong those aged 18 44 years, with a relative risk of 2.96 when compared with women in the same age range (95% CI 1.72 to 5.09, P > 0.001). The road traffic injury rates found in this survey highlight a neglected public health problem in Nigeria. Simple extrapolations from this survey suggest that over 4 million people may be injured and as many as 200 000 potentially killed a s the result of road traffic cashes annually in Nigeria. DIST RIBUTION OF ROAD TRAFFIC DEATHS BY ROAD USER GROUP: A GLOBAL COMPARISON The study outlined systematically the global distribution of road traffic deaths by road user groups (pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, motorized four whe eler occupants) using comprehensive searches of PubMed, Google, Google scholar, Transportlink, grey literature and reference lists and communication with expert s from international organisation and country level institutions was conducted t o identify eligible studies and data sources. A breakdown of road traffic deaths by road user group was constructed for 14 epi demiologically defined World Health Organization (WHO) sub-regions in addition t o World Bank income categories. In addition, the total number of road traffic fa talities by road user group in low-income, middle income and high-income countri es was estimated. The breakdown of road traffic deaths by road user group varies dramatically acro ss epidemiological WHO sub-regions. The magnitude of pedestrian fatalities range s from more than half in Africa sub-region (55%) to 15% or less in AmrA or EurA. 45% of road traffic fatalities in low income countries are among pedestrians, w hereas an estimated 29% in middle income and 18% in high-income countries are amon g pedestrians. The burden of road traffic injuries on vulnerable road users diff ers substantially across income levels. An estimated total of 227 835 pedestrian s die in low-income countries, as opposed to 161 501 in middle-income countries and 22 500 in high-income countries each year. Ameliorating road safety requires the implementation of context specific solutio ns.