ABSTRACT
The objective of the study was to examine the effect of seat-belt legislation on hospital admissions with road traffic injuries and was designed as a retrospective descriptive study. All motor vehicle crashes recorded during the period 2001 - 2004 were extracted from the Emergency Medical Service Department. Details of the crashes, injuries and safety devices used were studied. The present study revealed that safety belt usage rates have increased from 8% in 2001 to 67% in 2004 among patients admitted to hospital with injury after road traffic crashes. The admission rate of patients with road traffic injuries per 100 000 population reduced by 17.7%. The enforcement of the seat-belt legislation played a vital role in reduction of hospital admissions due to road traffic crashes.
Subject(s)
Accidents, Traffic/statistics & numerical data , Hospitalization/statistics & numerical data , Seat Belts/legislation & jurisprudence , Wounds and Injuries/epidemiology , Adult , Automobile Driving , Developing Countries , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Qatar/epidemiology , Retrospective Studies , Wounds and Injuries/etiology , Wounds and Injuries/prevention & controlABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to determine the frequency and severity of camel racing injuries among children aged 5 to 15 years during the period 1992 to 2003 in the State of Qatar. DESIGN: Case series. SETTING: The study was conducted in the Hamad General Hospital, State of Qatar, from January 1992 to December 2003. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 275 subjects aged 5 to 15 years with camel racing injuries who were seen at the Accident Emergency Department, Critical Care, and Physiotherapy Departments of the Hamad General Hospital were studied. The sociodemographic information and the details of the injury of the studied subjects were collected. The Abbreviated Injury Scale system was used to determine the severity of injury. RESULTS: Overall, 275 camel racing injuries were reported among boys aged 5 to 15 years. The majority of patients were Sudanese (91.3%). The most commonly injured locations were upper limb (23.2%), lower limb (21.1%), and head (20.7%), followed by other injury locations. Seventeen patients were disabled as a result of their injury, and another 3 injuries were fatal. This study revealed that 34% of injuries were considered to be minor, 22.1% moderate, 18.1% serious, 11.6% critical, and 6.4% maximum. CONCLUSIONS: The injury severity caused by the camel racing significantly affected the length of hospital stay. At present, the government is serious about this problem, and there is a draft of proposed legislation intended to prevent the employment of children below the age of 12 as camel jockeys.
