Stewart Michael J, Negin Joel, Farrell Penny, Houasia Patrick, Munamua Alex B, Martiniuk Alexandra
School of Public Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Orthopaedic Department, National Referral Hospital, Honiara, Solomon Islands.
Rural Remote Health. 2015 Jul-Sep;15(3):2945. Epub 2015 Jul 26.
Road traffic crashes constitute a considerable public health burden and represent the eighth leading cause of death and tenth leading cause of disability adjusted life years (DALYs) globally. However, very little is known about the extent, causes and impact of crashes in low- and middle-income countries including those in the Pacific. This lack of data is particularly true for the Solomon Islands.
The study is a retrospective record review of a pre-existing, de-identified dataset. A standardised trauma form is completed for all patients presenting to the orthopaedic department at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara with a suspected fracture following a trauma. Data are coded using one of 27 unique codes. Data related to road traffic crashes were extracted from the larger dataset, cleaned and analysed in Microsoft Excel.
The database contained 699 records coded with one of seven codes related to road traffic crashes. Patients in the database were most frequently injured whilst a passenger in a car (27.8%), as a pedestrian (24.0%), or as a passenger in an open truck (21.6%). Almost three-quarters of patients were male. Just under half (48.5%) were aged between 10 and 29 years. Alcohol was listed as a contributing factor in 23.8% of presentations.
This is one of the first studies to provide data on road traffic crashes in the Solomon Islands. In this database, young males were most likely to be involved in a crash that resulted in a suspected fracture. Young males are in their prime years of productivity, and injuries that remove them from the workforce could have severe socioeconomic implications. This study found that more than half of injuries were borne by vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and motorcyclists, indicating a need for interventions that take these users into account. Finally, the study provides insight into the large impact that alcohol has on the risk of road traffic crashes.
道路交通事故构成了相当大的公共卫生负担，是全球第八大死因和第十大致残调整生命年（DALY）的主要原因。然而，对于包括太平洋地区国家在内的低收入和中等收入国家交通事故的范围、原因及影响，人们知之甚少。所罗门群岛尤其缺乏这方面的数据。
本研究是对一个预先存在的、已去除身份标识的数据集进行回顾性记录审查。为所有因创伤后疑似骨折而到霍尼亚拉国家转诊医院骨科就诊的患者填写一份标准化创伤表格。数据使用27种独特编码之一进行编码。与道路交通事故相关的数据从更大的数据集中提取出来，在Microsoft Excel中进行清理和分析。
该数据库包含699条用与道路交通事故相关的七种编码之一进行编码的数据记录。数据库中的患者最常受伤的情况是乘坐汽车时（27.8%）、作为行人（24.0%）或乘坐敞篷卡车时（21.6%）。近四分之三的患者为男性。略低于一半（48.5%）的患者年龄在10至29岁之间。23.8%的就诊病例中列出酒精为一个促成因素。
这是首批提供所罗门群岛道路交通事故数据的研究之一。在这个数据库中，年轻男性最有可能卷入导致疑似骨折的事故。年轻男性正处于生产力的黄金时期，使他们无法工作的损伤可能会产生严重的社会经济影响。本研究发现，超过一半的受伤者是行人及骑摩托车者等易受伤害的道路使用者，这表明需要采取考虑到这些使用者的干预措施。最后，该研究深入了解了酒精对道路交通事故风险的巨大影响。
