The burden of road traffic injuries in Nigeria: Results of a population-based survey

Background: Mortality from road traffic injuries in sub-Saharan Africa is among the highest in the world, yet data from the region are sparse. To date, no multi-site population-based survey on road traffic injuries has been reported from Nigeria, the most populated country in Africa. Objective: To explore the epidemiology of road traffic injury in Nigeria and provide data on the populations affected and risk factors for road traffic injury. Design: Data from a population-based survey using two-stage stratified cluster sampling. Subjects/setting: Road traffic injury status and demographic information were collected on 3082 respondents living in 553 households in seven of Nigeria\u27s 37 states. Main outcome measures: Incidence rates were estimated with confidence intervals based on a Poisson distribution; Poisson regression analysis was used to calculate relative risks for associated factors. Results: The overall road traffic injury rate was 41 per 1000 population (95% CI 34 to 49), and mortality from road traffic injuries was 1.6 per 1000 population (95% CI 0.5 to 3.8). Motorcycle crashes accounted for 54% of all road traffic injuries. The road traffic injury rates found for rural and urban respondents were not significantly different. Increased risk of injury was associated with male gender among those aged 18-44 years, with a relative risk of 2.96 when compared with women in the same age range (95% CI 1.72 to 5.09, p\u3c0.001). Conclusions: The road traffic injury rates found in this survey highlight a neglected public health problem in Nigeria. Simple extrapolations from this survey suggest that over 4 million people may be injured and as many as 200 000 potentially killed as the result of road traffic crashes annually in Nigeria. Appropriate interventions in both the health and transport sectors are needed to address this significant cause of morbidity and mortality in Nigeria

Effect of free distribution of safety equipment on usage among motorcycle–taxi drivers in Tanzania—A cluster randomised controlled trial

INTRODUCTION: Deaths due to road traffic injuries, particularly motorcycle crashes, have increased rapidly in many African nations and context-specific strategies to improve preventative behaviors are needed. Although adhering to conspicuity measures by wearing reflective safety vests is a highly effective crash prevention strategy and mandated by law among motorcycle-taxi drivers in some African countries, actual use is currently low. We aimed to test whether eliminating cost-barriers through the provision of free reflective, fluorescent motorcycle safety vests would lead to increased utilization among a high-risk population of motorcycle-taxi drivers in Tanzania. METHODS: A cluster randomised controlled trial was conducted among 180 motorcycle-taxi drivers. Participants randomised to the intervention arm (90) received free, reflective, fluorescent vests; participants randomised to the control arm (90) did not receive free vests. Participants’ use of reflective vests was then observed on city streets over a three month period and differential uptake was estimated using mixed-effects logistic regression. RESULTS: Baseline use of reflective vests was 3.3% in both arms. Seventy-nine drivers in the intervention arm and 82 drivers in the control arm were observed during follow-up. The average proportion of observations during which motorcycle drivers were using a reflective vest was 9.5% in the intervention arm, compared to 2.0% in the control arm (odds ratio: 5.5, 95% confidence interval: 1.1-26.9, p-value: 0.04). CONCLUSION: Although distribution of free reflective vests led to a statistically significant increase in vest usage, the absolute increase was modest. Additional strategies beyond removing economic barriers are important to augment adherence to road safety behaviors for injury prevention