Road Accident Mortality of the Iranian Elderly from 2006 to 2008

Mortality rate in traffic accident is high for Iranian elderly. Twenty percent of elderly people are involved in traffic accident in Iran `s cities every year. This study is a descriptive cross sectional study. All data in this field from 2006 to 2008 collected from forensic medicine centers across the country and were analyzed with SPSS software. In general, 12029 deaths due to traffic accident occurred in people over 60 years old in Iran from 2006 to 2008. On average 65% of deaths were occurred in young-old: 34.5% in old group and 0.5% in the old-old group. In these years 19.2% of death in elderly people was occurred in drivers, 56.9% in pedestrians and 23.2% in occupants. On average, each year 46% of deaths in traffic accidents were happened in cities 46.3% on suburban roads, and 6.8% were occurred on rural roads. The rate of traffic accident in Iran is about 20 folds in compare to those of other countries. In years of study mortality rate in old and old-old age groups were increased and in young-old group was decreased. The frequency of deaths in elderly people due to traffic accidents was decreased in suburban roads and increased in urban roads.