A study of association of substance abuse and road traffic accidents in a tertiary care centre

Abstract

Introduction: Road traffic accidents are one of leading causes of death in India. The steadily increasing incidence of road traffic accidents has become a major public health issue. alcohol consumption is one of the most common cause for road traffic accidents according to the World Health Organization (WHO), road traffic injuries are the sixth leading cause of death in India with a greater share of hospitalization, deaths, disabilities and socio-economic losses in the young and middle-aged population. India reported 35.1 accidents per 10000 motor vehicle in 2011, Karnataka is the fourth ranking state in road traffic accidents in India. Methodology:The study was conducted in victims of road traffic accident brought to tertiary care centre of Adichunchanagiri medical sciences, bg nagara between September 2016 and may 2017 The datas were collected regarding age, sex, nature of injury, educational status, type of vehicle, type of road user, time of incidence, history of alcohol intake, place of consumption. Results: Totally 1164 victims reported to casualty due to RTA and 442 of them were under the influence of alcohol, of which 33% of accidents were sustained in the age group 21-30 years,31.2% of the subjects had lower limb injury and 24.7% suffered from head injury,18.3% sustained upper limb trauma, 10.8% suffered chest injury, 8.6% were affected by faciomaxillary trauma. It was also observed that 99.09% of the victims were males. Majority of the victims were under educated, (33.03%) were agriculturists, most of the incidents occurred in the evenings 6pm-12 midnight. Conclusion:This study was carried out to know the involvement of alcohol consumption in road traffic accidents reporting to a tertiary care centre. It showed that most of the victims were males. Majority of the cases (38.2%) belong to the age group 21-30 years. Among the victims 39% were two wheeler drivers, 19% were three wheeler drivers followed by pedestrians (15.4%), four wheeler drivers (13.6%) and pillon riders (13%). Majority of the cases suffered lower limb injury This study clearly correlates the effect of alcohol and drug consumption in road traffic accident.