title: Economic Burden of Road Traffic Accidents; Report from a Single Center from South Eastern Iran.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the economic burden of road traffic accidents (RTAs) in patients admitted to a single center in south eastern Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study was conducted in Amir-Al-Momenin hospital of Zabol affiliated with Zabol University of Medical Sciences during a 12-month period from April 2012 to April 2013. All the RTAs patients who were admitted to our emergency department were included. The direct expenses of hospital care were recorded according to their medical charts and the accountant registration information. Data are presented according to different RTAs characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall 1155 patients were included in the current study with mean age of 36.7 ± 5.14 years among whom there were 673(58.3%) men and 482 (41.7%) women. The annual incidence of RTAs were calculated to be 288 per 100,000 population. The RTAs economic burden in our center was 589,448.49 USD which accounted for 10.4% of total hospital expenses during the study period. The money spend on RTAs in our center was 130 times more than gross national income per capita. Cost of each patient in road traffic was 15 times more than cost of an average patient of the hospital in other sections.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With considerable high ratio of accidents in Zabol, proper intervention is needed for controlling and preventing RTAs in order to decrease its injuries, impact and the associated economic burden.
authors.affiliation: Medical Student, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran  
authors.forename: Aliyeh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sargazi
authors.affiliation: Civil Engineering Student, Sistan and Baloochestan University, Zahedan, Iran  
authors.forename: Atefeh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sargazi
authors.affiliation: IT Engineer, Linlithgow, UK  
authors.forename: Prigil Kumar
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Nadakkavukaran Jim
authors.affiliation: Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran  
authors.forename: HoseinAli
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Danesh
authors.affiliation: Medical Student, ShahidBeheshti University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran  
authors.forename: ForoughSargolzaee
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Aval
authors.affiliation: Medical Student, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran  
authors.forename: Zohre
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kiani
authors.affiliation: Medical Student, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran  
authors.forename: AmirHosein
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lashkarinia
authors.affiliation: Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sepehri
keywords: Economic burden; Healthcare Expenses; Iran; Road traffic accidents (RTAs)