Road traffic injuries in India: a review of the literature.

AIMS

India is the largest country in the South Asian region with all the problems faced by rapidly developing nations, especially increasing motorization. In spite of such developments, there are limited data in the literature addressing the problem of road traffic injuries. This article is an attempt to estimate the magnitude of the problem through published literature.

METHODS

This article is a systematic review of the literature on road traffic injuries in India, conducted using three electronic databases and hand-searching of the selected articles. Final analyses were conducted with 22 studies.

RESULTS

Road traffic injuries are a significant burden on the health care system in India. The most commonly affected group is young males. Pedestrians constitute a large majority of the victims and there is high early mortality in most cases.

CONCLUSIONS

There is lack of population-based data on road traffic injuries in India and there is large heterogeneity in the published data. This is an important research agenda for the country. Immediate steps are required to curb this problem to limit the loss of life and resources.