Surveillance of Road Crash Injuries in Cambodia: An Evaluation of the Cambodia Road Crash and Victim Information System (RCVIS)

Abstract

Objective Worldwide, 1.24 million deaths and 20–50 million road crash injuries occur annually, with a disproportionate burden on low- and middle-income countries. Facing continued growth in motorized vehicles, Cambodia has begun to address road safety, including the creation of a nationwide road crash surveillance system, the Road Crash and Victim Information System (RCVIS). This study evaluates the RCVIS to understand whether road crash injuries are being monitored efficiently and effectively and to identify areas for improvement. Methods We used the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Guidelines for Evaluating Public Health Surveillance Systems” (CDC 2001) as an evaluation framework. To assess system attributes, we conducted in-person interviews with Cambodian road safety stakeholders, including representatives from the Ministries of Health and Interior, and reviewed RCVIS annual reports and system operation documents. Characteristics assessed include usefulness, flexibility, acceptability, sensitivity, representativeness, data quality, and timeliness. Results The Cambodian government uses RCVIS data extensively for road safety planning purposes. RCVIS participation varies by type of data source, with 100 percent of police districts and 65 percent of hospitals reporting in 2010. Representativeness over time is a limitation—between 2007 and 2008, the number of reporting hospitals decreased from 65 to 42. From 2007 to 2010, the number of nonfatal injuries reported to RCVIS decreased by 35 percent, despite rapid growth in vehicle registrations. The system is timely, with annual reports disseminated within 10 months to more than 250 stakeholders. Conclusion The RCVIS provides a strong foundation for the surveillance of road crash injuries and fatalities in Cambodia. Differences in participation by data source and reduced hospital participation over time affect data representativeness and may indicate issues with acceptability. Recommendations include working with hospitals to standardize reporting procedures and to increase awareness about the usefulness of the data they collect.

Road safety and road traffic accidents in Saudi Arabia

“…It was concluded that factors affecting the occurrence of accidents were not necessarily predictors of outcome severity. 41 , 42 Similarly, the causes of accidents were described in some of the reviewed articles by different methods, such as the opinion of the drivers, the reflected opinion of potential drivers, and evidence of the victims. 16 , 26 , 32 , 33 , 38 As a result of the enactment of the seat belt law, in accordance with suggestions from these studies, a significant drop in certain types of injuries was observed.…”

Road traffic fatalities in selected governorates of Iraq from 2010 to 2013: prospective surveillance

“…Motorization can indicate increased exposure, and if not accompanied by road safety legislation and adequate enforcement, may also indicate increased risk. Increased motorization was associated with increased rates of traffic fatalities in Germany following reunification in 1989 to 1991 and during times of economic progress in Nepal between 1981 and 2003 and Cambodia between 2006 and 2010 [ 8 , 11 , 12 ]. Estimates from the region with both annual numbers of road traffic fatalities and vehicles registered are unavailable.…”

Fatal motorcycle crashes: a growing public health problem in Cambodia

“…First, although RCVIS contains both fatal and non-fatal injuries, we report only on fatalities due to inconsistent reporting among hospitals over the study period which compromised the quality of non-fatal injury data. There is more confidence in the data quality for fatalities, because fatalities are based primarily on police data, which have been shown to be more reliable than hospital data (Parker et al, in press). Nonetheless, reporting on motorcyclist fatalities underestimates the true burden of motorcycle crashes in Cambodia.…”