Investigation of Geographical and Socioeconomic Inequalities in Mortality from Road Traffic Accidents in Corpses Referred to Legal Medicine Organization of Iran

Abstract

Background and Objectives: This research was conducted to investigate the socioeconomic and geographical inequality in mortality from road traffic accidents in Iran in 2016. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, the data of 16,584 people that died from road traffic accidents in 2016 were received from the Legal Medicine Organization. Theil entropy index was used to determine inequality in geographic areas. Moreover, relative and absolute concentration indices were used to measure inequality in mortality from RTAs across educational levels. Results: The mortality rate from road traffic accident was 21.5 per 100,000 people. Theil index was 0.66 for traffic-related deaths among the provinces, indicating an unequal distribution of traffic injuries caused by traffic accidents among the provinces. When inequality was measured at smaller geographical levels, i.e., among cities in each province, the results indicated a fair distribution across smaller geographic levels. The focus index also indicated a fair distribution of traffic accidents among the deceased sub-classes (concentration index & 95% CI: -0.13 (-0.41; 0.16). Conclusion: Our findings showed that the distribution of mortality from road traffic accidents was unequal at provincial positions. According to our findings, mortality from traffic accidents was distributed equally among the socioeconomic and urban levels. Therefore, health managers can use the findings of this study to develop interventions to reduce inequalities. In addition to targeting factors contributing to known social inequalities in the health and social status, other factors should be considered and applied to evaluate their interventions in the future.

Keywords

• inequality
• health equity
• mortality
• traffic accidents
• theil index
• concentration index