Epidemiological Study of Road Traffic Accident Cases: A Study from South Odisha

The present study was designed to assess the various epidemiological factors related to cases of road traffic accident and to study the socio clinical aspects of patients admitted to the trauma Centre. For the purpose of the study, a Road Traffic Accident (RTA) was defined as “an accident, which took place on the road between two or more objects, in which one is any kind of moving vehicle and the other a human being”.The cases that are admitted to the Trauma Care Centre, Orthopedic ward, Surgery ward and FMT department following Road Traffic Injury during the study period (1 January 2011 to 30 June 2012) constituted the study population. It was a Descriptive study in which the victims of the accidents were interviewed to obtain the information about the circumstances leading to accident. Where the condition of the victims did not warrant the interview, the relatives or attendants were interviewed. The information about the patients brought dead to the dept. of F.M.T for Post mortem examination was collected from the relatives, policemen & witnesses. A pre-tested Performa specially designed for this purpose was used for interviewing the accident victims. For Statistical analysis Chisquare test, Proportions, SPSS-17 were used.