Traffic Accident Prevention Measures and the Reduction of Patients from Traffic Injuries: A Case Study of Khon Kaen Regional Hospital - งานป้องกันอุบัติเหตุจราจรกับการลดจำนวนผู้ป่วยอุบัติเหตุ: กรณีศึกษาโรงพยาบาลศูนย์ขอนแก่น

Abstract

Khon Kaen regional hospital in collaboration with relevant provincial partners has implemented
traffic accident prevention programmes through public campaigns encouraging helmet wearing and
against drunk driving in Mueang district, Khon Kaen province, since 2007. This evaluation research,
therefore, was aimed at assessing the outcome of the prevention programmes in reducing
traffic injury patients with alcohol drinking, and determining an association between patients’ health
status after treatment with helmet wearing and drunk driving. The study employed secondary data
from injury surveillance (IS) database in Khon Kaen regional hospital between 2001 and 2011, a
total of 91,700 injury records. Data were analysed by interrupted time-series: Prais-Winsten regression
and multivariable logistic regression.
The prevention measures successfully reduced incidences of traffic injury with alcohol drinking
around 88 - 189 cases per annum relative to those estimated under the counterfactual assumption.
Non-drunk drivers had 18 percent more chances to recover from the traumas than drunk drivers.
Motorcycle riders with helmets were 60 percent more likely to recover better than those without
helmets.
In conclusion, the prevention measures through public campaign in Mueang district, Khon
Kaen province, contributed to a significant decrease in the number of traffic injury cases from alcohol
drinking. Helmet wearing and non-drunk driving tended to yield a better treatment outcome.
Further study should be expanded to other provinces with similar prevention measures and injury
surveillance record system. This will help establishing a clearer linkage between the prevention
measures in order to reduce losses from traffic injury in the longer term.
Key words: traffic accident prevention, alcohol, helmet