International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | December 2017 | Vol 4 | Issue 12 Page 4712 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Chauhan A et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2017 Dec;4(12):4712-4717 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Disability and mortality following road traffic injury: a follow-up study from a tertiary care centre of India Ashish Chauhan 1 , Naim Ahmed 1 *, Jai Veer Singh 2 , Vijay Kumar Singh 1 , Ajai Singh 3 , Suresh Kumar 4 INTRODUCTION Road transport is an essential part of the progress of any nation. It is required for proper connectivity between different locations. It enables increased access to jobs, economic markets, education, recreation & health care, which in turn have direct & indirect positive impacts on the health of the populations. However, road transportation also poses a threat to the population in the form of road traffic accidents. Road traffic accident is said to occur when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other stationary obstruction, such as a tree or utility pole. Any injury occurring as a result of road traffic accident is referred to as road traffic injury by WHO. 1 ABSTRACT Background: Road traffic injury (RTI) is emerging as a huge public health problem throughout the world. The problem is magnified manifold as it mainly affects people in productive age-group causing significant mortality and disability. Very few studies have been done in India to assess disability following RTI though it has attained astronomic proportions. This study was undertaken to know the proportion of disability as an outcome amongst patients admitted for road traffic injuries in a tertiary care centre of Lucknow, India and to know the determinants of mortality and disability following Road Traffic Injuries amongst these patients. Methods: A follow-up study was conducted on 267 patients of RTI admitted at Trauma Centre of King George’s Medical University UP (tertiary care centre), Lucknow, India from November 2012 to June 2013. Systemic random sampling was used to select the patients. Disability was assessed using ten points modified Barthel index. Data analysis was done using SPSS 17.0 software. Results: Mortality and disability were seen in 13.1 percent and 16.36 percent of the patients. Residence locale, road user type, time at first aid and admission, and head injury were significantly associated with mortality while extremes of age, residence locale and lower limb injury were significantly associated with disability. The level of significance was set at p value of 0.05. Conclusions: RTI poses a huge burden on healthcare delivery system and society in the form of mortality and disability. Attempts pertaining various sectors should be made to reduce the incidence of RTI and ensuing disability. Keywords: RTI, Disability 1 Department of Community Medicine and Public Health, 3 Department of Orthopedic Surgery, 4 Department of Surgery, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India 2 Hind Institute of Medical Sciences, Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, India Received: 14 October 2017 Revised: 14 November 2017 Accepted: 15 November 2017 *Correspondence: Dr. Naim Ahmed, E-mail: drnaimahmedkgmu@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20175356