The burden of road and transport injuries in low- and middle-income countries: A global health policy analysis on the role of road safety evidence and information systems

With 1.35 million deaths annually, road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among the young adults with more than 90% of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries. Over the last decade, the global community has paid increased attention to road safety with UN proclaiming 2011 to 2020 the decade of action for road safety. These initiatives led to the design and implementation of national strategies for road safety in a number of countries. However, despite the progresses in policy making, the number of road traffic casualties had no remarkable change. This fact underlines the need for comprehensive approaches with evidence based interventions.Reliable and timely information on road traffic injuries and deaths can help identify vulnerable road users, inform resource allocation decisions and design effective interventions and policies. However, many countries do not have a reliable death registration system and face the challenge of having multiple information systems recording road traffic deaths data that are incomplete, inconsistent and locked in silos. The aim of our study is to understand the design of road traffic death registration systems and the use of information systems and scientific knowledge in road traffic safety policy-making.

Keywords: road safety; health policy; systems thinking; death; traffic accident

Short Biography

My name is Maryam Tavakkoli. I have a MSc Health Economics degree from Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Since 2015 I worked at a Road Trauma Research Center as a researcher for two years. Despite implementing many road safety policies, Iran is still among the countries with highest rates of road deaths in the world. This yet gloomy fact inspired me to take up the challenge of a PhD. In 2018 I enrolled in a PhD program in Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Basel household economics and health systems research unit of the Swiss TPH. In 2020 I started an internship with safety and mobility unit at World Health Organization in 2020.

Maryam Tavakkoli
Swiss TPH
University of Basel

Personal Website
maryam.tavakkoli@swisstph.ch

Supervisor: Günther Fink