Prevalence of road traffic accidents during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis

 At the beginning of the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19 pandemic, many countries around the world closed their centers and imposed restrictions on urban and interurban traffic. This situation had a significant impact on the occurrence of road traffic accidents. The present systematic review aimed to determine the prevalence of road accidents during the COVID-19 implemented lockdowns.

 This systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted based on the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) instructions. Two independent reviewers screened articles based on the inclusion criteria for the review and eligible studies for methodological quality using an appropriate appraisal checklist based on the study type. The statistical analysis was performed using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) software. Considering the heterogeneity among studies, a random effect model was adopted to estimate the pooled effect with 95% CI for binary outcomes.

 The initial search of databases yielded 849 potentially relevant articles, of which, 44 studies were included in this systematic review and of them, 36 were considered for metaanalysis. The random effect model showed an overall prevalence of injury before the lockdown of 24.9% (95% confidence interval: 20.0%-30.5%). Also, the prevalence of injury during the COVID-19 lockdown was 18.8% (95% CI: 14.7%-23.6%). Begg and Mazumdar’s correlation found no publication bias in the meta-analysis.

 Road traffic injuries, as one of the main causes of death worldwide, took on a new face with the advent of COVID-19. We have found that there is a relatively high prevalence of road traffic accidents before COVID-19 compared to pandemic period.