A CASE-CONTROL STUDY OF NONFATAL TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS ON HOSPITAL PATIENTS IN BANGKOK METROPOLIS

Morbidity and mortality from road traffic accidents in Bangkok metropo lis is high with a trend strictly increasing in time, thus establishin g one of the major public health problems and targets of the Kingdom o f Thailand. An unmatched case-control study was undertaken to evaluate various risk patterns connected with the occurrence of traffic accide nts. 350 cases were sampled from five major hospitals distributed over the Bangkok Metropolitan area and 350 controls were included from out patients of Rajawithi hospital. The major interest in this case-contro l analysis is to estimate relative risk (through odds ratio) and measu re statistical significance of association between road traffic accide nt and the following risk factors: the demographic risk factors are ag e (age between 15 and 19 years has odds ratio of 8.25 [1.01, 67. 72]; age above 40 is baseline), marital status (single has odds ratio of 2. 74 [1.26, 5.95]; baseline is not-single), sex (males have an odds rati o of 2.05 [0.51, 8.24], occupation (salespersons have an odds ratio of 4.27 [1.47, 12.46], baseline are office workers), the driving related exposure factors type of vehicle (motorbykers have an odds ratio of 6 .22 [2.82, 13.78]; baseline are other vehicle drivers), driving time p er day (odds ratio 1.35 [0.88, 2.09]) and the number of accidents in t he last three years (odds ratio of 4.36 [2.51, 7.58]); the behavioral factors one hour before driving such as the consumption of alcohol (od ds ratio 3.01 [1.53, 5.94]; baseline is no alcohol) and the consumptio n of a lot of food (odds ratio of 0.07 [0.03, 0.16]; baseline is not e ating a lot before driving). The odds ratios for traffic accident when being under allergic medication and the consumption of tranquilizer w ere not significant. The results are consistent with current results i n traffic accident research and point to target groups for potential p revention programmes in traffic accident prevention.