Pattern of road traffic injuries among individuals attending a rural health training center in Tamil Nadu

Background: Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are a leading public health problem. Approximately 1.3 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes as of June 2021. RTIs cause considerable economic losses to individuals, their families, and to nations as a whole. 93% of the world's fatalities on the roads occur in low-and middle-income countries. This study aimed to assess the pattern of RTIs among individuals attending a rural health training center in Tamil Nadu.Methods: The present study was a record based cross sectional study comprising of 113 patients who attended an outpatient department in rural health training center in Tamil Nadu from January 2021 to June 2021.We collected socio-demographic data (age and sex) and pattern of injuries from the database. We entered data in excel sheet and analyzed using SPSS version 21.0.Results: Mean (±SD) age of the patients was 34.2(±18.46) years. Most common pattern of injury was abrasion 98 (86.7%), followed by contusion 28 (24.8%) and laceration 14 (12.4%) respectively. Most RTIs required dressing 106 (93.8%) while 13 (11.5%) needed suturing.Conclusions: The present study showed that RTIs were more common in the younger male population. Abrasion was the most common type of injury reported.