Accident time and socio demographic impact on severity of injuries among patients involved in motorcycle accidents at Kenyatta National Hospital

Abstract

Background Motorcycle injuries have increased significantly in Kenya in the past five years due to the increasing number of motorcyclists on the roads. The motorcycle has become popular as convenient form of commercial transport available for navigating poor road networks or traffic holdups. There exists lack of data in our setting on the socio-demographic factors, use of safety equipment such as helmets and the impact of various contributing factors such as alcohol use. This study shall determine the influence of time of accident, age, gender, helmet and alcohol use on severity of motorcycle injuries sustained by patients involved in motorcycle accidents presenting at Kenyatta National Hospital. Objective To investigate the impact of time of accident and socio-demographic factors on the severity of injuries in patients involved in motorcycle accidents in Kenyatta National Hospital Setting Kenyatta National Hospital in the Accident and Emergency unit, Intensive Care Unit, General Surgical and Orthopaedic wards Study design 3 month purposive sampling prospective study Xl Patients and methods The study population was patients of all age groups involved in motor cycle accidents presenting at the Accident and Emergency Department ( whether driver, passenger or pedestrian). Data was collected by the Principal Investigator and research assistants by means of a pre tested questionnaire. Variables The variables being studied were time of accident, age and gender, injury host status: whether rider, passenger or pedestrian, time, helmet use and alcohol use. The Injury Severity Score was calculated for each patient. Data collection and analysis A pre-tested questionnaire was administered in data collection. The data collected was entered in MS Access database. Students Hest was used to compare difference in means for two groups for continuous variables. Chi-square test of independence/ Fishers exact test was used to assess association between stratified strata of ISS scores with categorical variables. XlI Results Of the 146 patients that were recruited in the study, 69.2% of accidents had occurred during the day. The majority (30.8%) occurred between 3 and 6 p.m. Day time accidents were associated with increased severity of injuries. There were 83.6% males and 16.4% females. The mean age was 30.1 years. Majority were passengers (41.1 %), the rest were drivers (36.3%) and pedestrians (22.6%). The mean Blood Alcohol Concentration for the drivers was 10 mg/dL. Helmet usage was 31%. Age, gender and alcohol use did not increase the severity of injuries sustained and 4.8% sustained critical injuries. Conclusion The majority of victims are male between the age of 21-30 years. Passengers account for the majority of patients involved in motorcycle accidents with majority of accidents occurring during the day time. Daytime injuries are more severe than night time injuries. The lower extremity is the commonest body region involved followed by head injuries. Helmet usage in our setting is low. Alcohol usage does not contribute the severity of injuries sustained