Pre-hospital trauma care resources for road traffic injuries in a middle-income country--a province based study on need and access in Iran.
BACKGROUND
Access to pre-hospital trauma care can help minimize many of traffic related mortality and morbidity in low- and middle-income countries with high rate of traffic deaths such as Iran. The aim of this study was to assess if the distribution of pre-hospital trauma care facilities reflect the burden of road traffic injury and mortality in different provinces in Iran.


METHODS
This national cross-sectional study is based on ecological data on road traffic mortality (RTM), road traffic injuries (RTIs) and pre-hospital trauma facilities for all 30 provinces in Iran in 2006. Lorenz curves and Gini coefficients were used to describe the distributions of RTM/RTIs and pre-hospital trauma care facilities across provinces. Spearman rank-order correlation was performed to assess the relationship between RTM/RTI and pre-hospital trauma care facilities.


RESULTS
RTM and RTIs as well as pre-hospital trauma care facilities were distributed unequally between different provinces. There was no significant association between the rate of RTM and RTIs and the number of pre-hospital trauma care facilities across the country.


CONCLUSIONS
The distribution of pre-hospital trauma care facilities does not reflect the needs in terms of RTM and RTIs for different provinces. These results suggest that traffic related mortality and morbidity could be reduced if the needs in terms of RTM and RTIs were taken into consideration when distributing pre-hospital trauma care facilities between the provinces.
Haghparast Bidgoli
Hassan
H
Department of Public Health Sciences, Division of Global Health, Karolinska Institute, Sweden. hassan.haghparast@ki.se
Bogg
Lennart
L
Hasselberg
Marie
M
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000401:mortality* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000552:Ambulances / Q000600:supply & distribution; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D006295:Health Resources / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy