Effect of COVID-19 on Epidemiological Characteristics of Road Traffic Injuries in Suzhou:A Retrospective Study

Abstract Background: To present the new trends in epidemiology of road traffic injuries (RTIs) in Suzhou under the impact of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and control measures.Methods: Pre-hospital care records of RTIs in January-May 2020 and January-May 2019 were collected from the database of Suzhou emergency center, Jiangsu, China， and relevant clinical data were extracted for a retrospective study. RTIs in 2020 and 2019 were defined as observation group and control group respectively.Results: There were 7288 RTIs in the observation group, accounting for 82.17% of the control group. The number of RTIs per month from January to May in the observation group were 79.72%, 47.69%, 79.30%, 85.72% and 99.39% of the control group, respectively. Subgroup analysis showed that the number and composition ratio of electric bicycle related RTIs in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group (2641, 36.24% vs 2380, 26.84%, P<0.001). We observed a statistically significant increase in proportion of RTIs with consciousness disorder in the observation group compared to the control group (7.22% vs 6.13%, P = 0.006).Conclusions: Under the impact of COVID-19, the total number of RTIs in Suzhou from January to May 2020 decreased obviously. Nevertheless, there was an obvious rise in electric bicycle related RTIs, and the proportion of RTIs with consciousness disorder also increased. It is necessary for electric bicycle riders to wear helmets.