Is Motorcycle Injury An Emerging Public Health Problem In Bangladesh: Sharing Experiences From A National Population-Based Survey

Backgrounds Globally, motorcycle is a major contributor of the total burden of road traffic injuries. Motorcycle industries are rapidly growing in Bangladesh. However, their involvement in road traffic crashes are not yet been investigated at national level. Objective Objective of the study was to explore the epidemiological burden of motorcycle injuries for future policy implication. Methods Present study is based on the Bangladesh Health Injury Survey 2016, a cross-sectional survey conducted between March and June 2016, 70 000 households and 2 99 216 population were selected based on probability proportional-to-size from 16 randomly selected districts.in Bangladesh. Trained data collectors carried out the face-to-face interview through electronic data collection process. Descriptive analysis was done to get the desired outputs. Findings It was revealed that motor cycle injury comprises 21.6% of all transport injuries. It was estimated that each year around 6 73 002 people sustain different degrees of injury i.e. 1844 per day and 10 590 people become permanently disabled i.e. 29 per day from motor cycle related injury. Rates of morbidity and mortality from motorcycle injury was 467.22 (95% CI: 442.8–491.7; p=0.000) and 1.67 (95% CI: 0.21 to 3.14; p=0.0001) respectively. Average hospitalization required was 11.42±16.74 days while average treatment cost was USD (534.85±2596.84) and average work days lost was 15.30±44.32. It was found from the survey that 81.3% injured victims did not use any safety device. 3.7% of injured victims were talking over mobile while driving motorcycle. Conclusion The survey has established motorcycle injuries as one of the major cause of road traffic injuries. Thus, findings of this study could be used as a knowledge base for policy makers in developing appropriate strategy to address the problem.