A Cross-sectional Study of Road Traffic Safety Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice among Emergency Department Staff

Background and Purpose: Emergency Department (ED) staff are frequently faced with road traffic injury victims and also play role as various road users. This study was conducted to investigate the knowledge, attitude, and practices of ED staff towards road safety at referral trauma hospitals of Tabriz. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2020 in the referral trauma hospitals of Tabriz. Data were collected using a standard questionnaire. Census sampling was used to select the participants. Descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation test and logistic regression model were used for the data analysis using SPSS Software. Results: The mean score of the ED staff in traffic safety knowledge, attitude and practices was 9.73 ± 2.28 out of 15, 95.3±11.4 out of 118, and 61.3±8 out of 76, respectively. The staff’s traffic safety knowledge was associated with their attitude and practices. Moreover, the univariate logistic regression modeling results revealed that participants' traffic safety attitude (OR= 0.96 (95% CI= 0.93-0.99)) and practices (OR= 0.95 (95% CI= 0.91-0.99)) were, independently, correlated with a reduction in road traffic accidents. Conclusions: The ED staff’s attitudes towards traffic safety had a positive correlation with their practices and also accident experience. Nonetheless, after adjusting the data in terms of knowledge and attitude, road traffic safety practice was not associated with participants' accident experience. It is crucial to consider road safety education in colleges to promote safety knowledge of graduate individuals which will have conspicuous results in risk reduction.