Road Traffic and Other Unintentional Injuries Among Travelers to Developing Countries

Barclay T Stewart; Isaac Kofi Yankson; Francis Afukaar; Martha C Hijar Medina; Pham Viet Cuong; Charles Mock

doi:10.1016/j.mcna.2015.07.011

Road Traffic and Other Unintentional Injuries Among Travelers to Developing Countries

Med Clin North Am. 2016 Mar;100(2):331-43. doi: 10.1016/j.mcna.2015.07.011.

Authors

Barclay T Stewart¹, Isaac Kofi Yankson², Francis Afukaar², Martha C Hijar Medina³, Pham Viet Cuong⁴, Charles Mock⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Surgery, University of Washington, 1959 Northeast Pacific Street, Suite BB-487, PO Box 356410, Seattle, WA 98195-6410, USA; School of Medical Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana; Department of Surgery, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi, Ghana. Electronic address: stewarb@u.washington.edu.
² CSIR-Building and Road Research Institute, University PO Box 40, Kumasi, Ghana.
³ Secretaria Técnica del CONAPRA, Subsecretaría de Prevención y Promoción Secretaría Salud, Guadalajara 46 3er. Piso Col Roma Norte, CP 06700, Mexico DF, Mexico.
⁴ Center for Injury Policy and Prevention Research, Department of Public Health Informatics, Hanoi School of Public Health, 138 Giảng Võ, Kim Mã, Ba Đình, Hanoi, Vietnam.
⁵ Department of Surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center, Patricia Bracelin Steel Memorial Building, 401 Broadway, 4th Floor, Seattle, WA 98122, USA; Harborview Medical Center, 325 9th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104, USA.

Abstract

Injuries result in nearly 6 million deaths and incur 52 million disability-adjusted life-years annually, making up 15% of the global disease burden. More than 90% of this burden occurs in low- and middle-income countries. Given this burden, it is not unexpected that injuries are the leading cause of death among travelers to low- and middle-income countries, namely, from road traffic crashes and drowning. Therefore, pretravel advice regarding foreseeable dangers and how to avoid them may significantly mitigate injury risk, such as wearing seatbelts, helmets, and personal flotation devices when appropriate; responsibly consuming alcohol; and closely supervising children.

Keywords: Advocacy; Burn; Drowning; Fall; Injury prevention; Road traffic injuries; Travel medicine; Unintentional injury.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Review

MeSH terms

Accidents, Traffic / prevention & control*
Accidents, Traffic / statistics & numerical data
Developing Countries*
Drowning / mortality
Drowning / prevention & control
Humans
Risk
Safety
Travel*
Wounds and Injuries / epidemiology
Wounds and Injuries / prevention & control*

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding