Relationship between Concentration of Traffic Accident Incidence by Various Causes and Provincial Eco-nomic Status: an Application of Concentration Index

Abstract

Traffic accident problem is a critical public health concern in Thailand. Despite a number of preventive measures launched in the past, with the country’s growing economy and the expansion of population, the incidence of traffic accidents in Thailand still remains on the rise. This research therefore sought to assess the relationship between traffic accident concentration sorted by causes and provincial economic status through the concentration index (CI). This study is cross-sectional research, using sec-ondary data surveyed by the National Statistical Office in 2014 where information from 76 provinces was obtained. The dataset is composed of (1) information about traffic accident incidence in each province by (1.1) human causes, (1.2) environmental causes, and (1.3) vehicle causes, and (2) information about gross provincial product (GPP) per capita. The findings revealed that the CIs of all-causes and human-causes are 0.033 and 0.088 respectively. This discovery alluded to the fact that traffic accident incidence was most concentrated amongst the better-off provinces. In contrast, the CIs of environmental-causes and vehicle-causes were -0.035 and -0.040 respectively, suggest that traffic accident incidence by environ-mental-causes and vehicle-causes was concentrated amongst the less better-off provinces. Note that the CIs in this study did not yield statistical significance. The contribution of this study to a wider policy implication is the use of CI as means to prioritise the urgency and intensity of traffic accident preventive measures, which might be varied in design according to the differences in the context of each province.