Mortality and Injury Severity in the Accident Victims Referred to the Hefdah Shahrivar Hospital of Amol; 2007

Traffic accidents are one of the main causes of death in world and the first cause of year life lost in Iran. Although paths leading to the Amol town are busy and eventful, we have not comprehensive information about effective factors in traffic accident and the factors related to traffic accident severity. This study was done to determine mortality and injury severity in the accident victims referred to the Hefdah Shahrivar hospital of Amol, Iran. This cross-sectional study was studied on 1397 road accident victims referred to Hefdah Shahrivar hospital of Amol town in 2007. Information on characteristics of injured persons, how accident occurred, accident location and time were recorded in the checklist. Injury severity scores (ISS) ranged from 1-6 according to physician's opinion. Then data was evaluated. From 1397 cases, 995 (71.2%) were male and 633 (45.2%) were at the age group of 15-30 years old. Number of deads was 125 (8.9%) that cause of death in 72 (6.57%) of them was head trauma. Number of injured cases was 476 (34.2%) and severity of injury was 7.85±10.21 on the roads outside urban area that was more than other roads (p<0.05). The passenger car occupants injured more (731 cases=52.3%) but the mean of injury severity in cyclists was 9.26±11.05 that was more than pedestrians, passenger car occupants and motorcyclists. The results of this study showed that a variety of factors, including the type and location of traffic accidents being involved in causing injuries, mortality and severity of injuries. Therefore, identifying these native factors will be a good guidance for the accurate and effective planning in improving the health of society.