Trend of Mortality Rate Due To Traffic Accidents In Iran From 2006 to 2018

Abstract Background: Traffic accidents are one of the most common causes of mortality and physical disabilities, endangering the lives of many people all over the world annually and are among the top public health problems worldwide. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the trend of mortality rate due to traffic accidents in the provinces of Iran.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, all the deaths caused by traffic accidents in Iran during 2006-2018 were investigated. Using the population of the country by age, sex, and provinces of the country, the mortality rate was calculated and the trend of 13-year changes was studied. The negative binomial regression was used to analyze the linear or nonlinear trend of reduction in mortality rate during the study years. Microsoft Excel 2016 and Stata version 14 software were used to analyze the data.Results: During the study period, 259995 traffic accidents deaths occurred in Iran, of which 78.6% were men and 21.4% were women. The mean age of the deceased was 37.6 ± 20.7 years (37.4 ± 20 years in men and 38.6 ± 23 years in women). The number of the deaths in these years has decreased from 27,567 in 2006 to 17,183 in 2018 and the mortality rate has dropped from 39 per 100,000 in 2006 to 21 per 100,000 in 2018.Conclusion: Despite the decreasing trend in the mortality rate of traffic accidents in Iran during the study years, this trend was different across the provinces. Therefore, it seems necessary to design epidemiological studies to be conducted in different area and provinces of a country, to better and more accurately determine the factors affecting the occurrence of these deaths.