Relationship between Incidence of Motorcycle Crashes and Economic Development in Iran: An Ecological Study

Background and Objectives: Evidences show an increase in the occurrence of road crashes and causalities in early stages of economic growth. This study aimed to evaluate the correlation between the incidence of motorcyclists’ crashes and the level of development of the provinces of Iran in the year of 2015.   Methods: This was an ecological study of the motorcyclists’ crashes in all provinces of Iran. Motorcyclists’ injuries were obtained from the database of traffic police and the report of population census in 2011 was used. Given that more than 99% of motorcycle-related crashes occurred in male motorcyclists, the population of males was used to adjust the results. The Pearson correlation coefficient was also applied.   Results: Totally, 90,724 crashes occurred among motorcyclists. The highest rate was in the age group of 18 to 30 years with 46,944 crashes (51.7%). As for sex, men had 90363 crashes (99.6%). Among different provinces, Tehran and Ardabil had the highest and lowest incidence with 1129.84 and 77.37 per 100 thousand male populations, respectively. Significant correlations were found between the incidence of motorcycle crashes and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (P value: 0.601) and Human Development Index (HDI) (P value 0.497), respectively (P<0.05).   Conclusion: Increased the incidence of motorcycle crashes is associated with the level of provincial economic development. In order to prevent the injuries and reducing its incidence, attention should be paid to the safety of roads and vehicles.