Epidemiological Characteristics of Fatal Traumatic Accidents in Babol, Iran: A Hospital-Based Survey.

OBJECTIVE To determine the epidemiological characteristics of fatal traumatic accidents in patients referred to a hospital in Babol, Northern Iran. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study being performed during a 1-year period including all the dead trauma patients referred to Shahid Beheshti Hospital of Babol. We included all those patients who were transferred to our center to trauma and injuries and passed away during the hospital stay. Those who died due to electrical shock, drowning and suffocation caused by hanging sand poisoning were excluded from the study. Demographic information such as age, sex, marital status, education, employment, the type, location, and time of injury, injured parts of body and treatment methods, the cause, location and time of death were recorded. RESULTS From the 92 dead patients, 76 were men (82.6%) and 16 were women (17.4%). The cause of death in 53 cases (57.6%) was head injury. Regarding the location,30patients (32.6%) died at the scene of the accident, 62(67.4%) died in the hospital. The maximum rate of trauma occurred in the afternoon shift between the hours of 13:30 to 19:30.The head and face were the most amaged organs. Road traffic accidents were the most common cause of injury related mortality recorded in 81 patients (88.0%). Most of the accidents occurred in intercity roads in 27 people (33.3%) and the others in rural-urban roads. Pedestrians were the most common victims of road traffic accidents mortality being reported in 29 people (35.8%). CONCLUSION Road traffic accidents are among the most common cause of injury related mortality in our region. Increasing the public knowledge and improve the traffic law enforcement measures should be considered for decreasing the morbidity and mortality.