Olson Zachary, Staples John A, Mock Charles, Nguyen Nam Phuong, Bachani Abdulgafoor M, Nugent Rachel, Verguet Stéphane
School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA.
Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center, Seattle, Washington, USA.
Inj Prev. 2016 Aug;22(4):233-8. doi: 10.1136/injuryprev-2015-041650. Epub 2016 Jan 4.
Vietnam's 2007 comprehensive motorcycle helmet policy increased helmet use from about 30% of riders to about 93%. We aimed to simulate the effect that this legislation might have on: (a) road traffic deaths and non-fatal injuries, (b) individuals' direct acute care injury treatment costs, (c) individuals' income losses from missed work and (d) individuals' protection against medical impoverishment.
We used published secondary data from the literature to perform a retrospective extended cost-effectiveness analysis simulation study of the policy. Our model indicates that in the year following its introduction a helmet policy employing standard helmets likely prevented approximately 2200 deaths and 29 000 head injuries, saved individuals US$18 million in acute care costs and averted US$31 million in income losses. From a societal perspective, such a comprehensive helmet policy would have saved $11 000 per averted death or $830 per averted non-fatal injury. In terms of financial risk protection, traffic injury is so expensive to treat that any injury averted would necessarily entail a case of catastrophic health expenditure averted.
The high costs associated with traffic injury suggest that helmet legislation can decrease the burden of out-of-pocket payments and reduced injuries decrease the need for access to and coverage for treatment, allowing the government and individuals to spend resources elsewhere. These findings suggest that comprehensive motorcycle helmet policies should be adopted by low-income and middle-income countries where motorcycles are pervasive yet helmet use is less common.
越南2007年的全面摩托车头盔政策使头盔佩戴率从约30%的骑行者提高到约93%。我们旨在模拟这项立法可能对以下方面产生的影响：(a)道路交通死亡和非致命伤害；(b)个人直接急性护理伤害治疗费用；(c)个人因误工造成的收入损失；(d)个人对医疗贫困的抵御能力。
我们使用文献中已发表的二手数据对该政策进行回顾性扩展成本效益分析模拟研究。我们的模型模型模型表明，在该政策实施后的一年里，采用标准头盔的头盔政策可能预防了约2200例死亡和29000例头部受伤，为个人节省了1800万美元的急性护理费用，并避免了3100万美元的收入损失。从社会角度来看，这样一项全面的头盔政策每避免一例死亡可节省11000美元，或每避免一例非致命伤害可节省830美元。在财务风险保护方面，交通伤害的治疗成本如此之高，以至于避免的任何伤害必然意味着避免了一例灾难性医疗支出。
与交通伤害相关的高昂成本表明，头盔立法可以减轻自付费用负担，而伤害的减少降低了获得治疗和治疗覆盖的需求，使政府和个人能够将资源用于其他方面。这些研究结果表明，摩托车普遍使用但头盔使用不太普遍的低收入和中等收入国家应采用全面的摩托车头盔政策。
