[Usefulness of geographic analysis in the study of deaths caused by motor vehicle injuries].
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the usefulness of geographic analysis to assess the distribution of fatal pedestrian run-over injuries.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study of mortality due to pedestrian run-over injuries was conducted in year 2000. Data were abstracted from death certificates of pedestrians who died due to run-over injuries in Mexico City, during 1994-1997 (International Classification of Diseases code E814.7). Crude mortality rates were obtained by political district and gender. Georeferenced mortality data were mapped by different levels of aggregation, using the software program Map-Info.


RESULTS
A total of 3,687 pedestrian fatalities were reported; 71% of them were Mexico City residents. Only 1,152 deaths (43.5%) were georeferenced, due to availability of the exact place of the event occurrence. Results by level of aggregation were: by political district level; Milpa Alta, Cuajimalpa and Cuauhtemoc had the highest death rates (23 per 100,000). At the next level (neighborhoods or colonias), ten colonias had over nine cases; and at the street level, one point at La Venta in Cuajimalpa presented 25 death cases due to pedestrian run-over injuries.


CONCLUSIONS
This kind of analysis helps us to display the spatial relationship between pedestrian run-over sites and other city landmarks, to advance in the study and prevention of pedestrian run-over deaths.
Centro de Investigación en Sistemas de Salud, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, México. mhijar@insp3.insp.mx
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Híjar-Medina
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D014505:Urban Population