Citation

Santamariña-Rubio E, Pérez K, Olabarria M, Nóvoa AM. Inj. Prev. 2013; 19(6): 436-439.

Affiliation

Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona (ASPB), CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica (IIB Sant Pau), , Barcelona, Spain.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/injuryprev-2012-040686

PMID

23403853

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To compare the risk of road traffic injury calculated using an exposure measure based on people's mobility, person-hours travelled (person-hours), with the risk obtained using population census, vehicle fleet and vehicle-kilometres travelled. METHODS: The rate of road traffic injury on a working day in Catalonia in 2006 was calculated using the number of people injured from the Register of Accidents and Victims of the National Traffic Authority and as denominator: person-hours travelled, from the 2006 Daily Mobility Survey of Catalonia; population census and vehicle fleet, from the National Statistics Institute; and vehicle-kilometres, from the Ministry of Public Works. RESULTS: Compared with person-hours travelled: population census may underestimate the risk in groups with low mobility; vehicle-kilometres may underestimate the risk in regions with high level of non-motorised mobility and high use of public transport; vehicle fleet may underestimate the risk for collective forms of transport such as buses and for motorcyclists who make many trips but of short duration. CONCLUSIONS: Measures of exposure involving people's mobility should be used in the estimation of road traffic injury risk, instead of vehicle's mobility, population census or vehicle fleet.

Language: en