Traffic safety and public health in China - Past knowledge, current status, and future directions

Ce Yang; Jianxin Jiang; Jihong Zhou; Masahito Hitosug; Zhengguo Wang

doi:10.1016/j.aap.2023.107272

Traffic safety and public health in China - Past knowledge, current status, and future directions

Accid Anal Prev. 2023 Nov:192:107272. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2023.107272. Epub 2023 Sep 6.

Authors

Ce Yang¹, Jianxin Jiang², Jihong Zhou², Masahito Hitosug³, Zhengguo Wang⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Trauma and Chemical Poisoning, Research Institute of Surgery, Research Institute of Traffic Medicine, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400042, PR China. Electronic address: sepsismd@126.com.
² State Key Laboratory of Trauma and Chemical Poisoning, Research Institute of Surgery, Research Institute of Traffic Medicine, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400042, PR China.
³ Department of Legal Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga, Japan.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Trauma and Chemical Poisoning, Research Institute of Surgery, Research Institute of Traffic Medicine, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400042, PR China; International Traffic Medicine Association, Bloomfield Hills, MI, USA. Electronic address: wangzhg@cae.cn.

PMID: 37683567
DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2023.107272

Abstract

Transportation-related harms have developed into a social disease, threatening public safety and health in China. We aimed to increase the global understanding of traffic safety and public health in China from past knowledge, current status, and future directions by collecting, collating, and analyzing the Chinese traffic incidents reported in the published literature. A systematic search of China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Weipu, and published articles referenced in PubMed, Web of Science and ProQuest between January 1, 1988 and April 30, 2023 was performed. China encountered the first recorded traffic accident as early as three thousand years ago in the Shang Dynasty. An increase in vehicle capacity and velocity increased the traffic risks during the transition from rickshaws and livestock to motor vehicles in varying traffic environments. Humans are not only the decisive factor of a large number of vehicles, traffic routes, and environmental variables, but also the victims at the end and starting point of traffic accidents. Injuries (mechanical force, burns) and diseases (traffic-related air pollution, noise) caused by traffic activities not only threaten public health, but also cause risks to safe driving. Analysis of traffic activities and biomarkers promotes the treatment of traffic injuries in ethology and medicine. China prepared for the construction of healthy transportation in the "decade of road safety" toward an estimation of worldwide road traffic injuries in 2030. Improvement of traffic safety concerning public health under the "Outline of the National Comprehensive Three-dimensional Transportation Network Planning" in China will propel the realization of worldwide traffic environmental advancement.

Keywords: Air pollution; Automobile driving; Aviation accidents; Environmental exposure; Environmental health; Explosion blast injury; Road traffic injuries (RTI); Spatial disorientation; Traffic accidents; Traffic crashes; Wounds and injuries.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Accidents, Traffic* / prevention & control
China
Health Status
Humans
Knowledge
Public Health*