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. 2021 Nov 19;16(1):57.
doi: 10.1186/s13017-021-00401-z.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on road traffic collision injury patterns and severity in Al-Ain City, United Arab Emirates

Yasin J Yasin  1   2 , David O Alao  3   4 , Michal Grivna  1   5 , Fikri M Abu-Zidan  6
Affiliations

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on road traffic collision injury patterns and severity in Al-Ain City, United Arab Emirates

Yasin J Yasin et al. World J Emerg Surg. .

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 Pandemic lockdowns restricted human and traffic mobility impacting the patterns and severity of road traffic collisions (RTCs). We aimed to study the effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on incidence, patterns, severity of the injury, and outcomes of hospitalized RTCs trauma patients in Al-Ain City, United Arab Emirates.

Methods: We compared the data of two cohorts of patients which were collected over two periods; the Pandemic period (28 March 2020 to 27 March 2021) and the pre-pandemic period (28 March 2019 to 27 March 2020). All RTCs trauma patients who were hospitalized in the two major trauma centers (Al-Ain and Tawam Hospitals) of Al-Ain City were studied.

Results: Overall, the incidence of hospitalized RTC trauma patients significantly reduced by 33.5% during the Pandemic compared with the pre-pandemic period. The mechanism of injury was significantly different between the two periods (p < 0.0001, Fisher's Exact test). MVCs were less during the Pandemic (60.5% compared with 72%), while motorcycle injuries were more (23.3% compared with 11.2%). The mortality of hospitalized RTC patients was significantly higher during the Pandemic (4.4% compared with 2.3%, p = 0.045, Fisher's Exact test). Logistic regression showed that the significant factors that predicted mortality were the low GCS (p < 0.0001), admission to the ICU (p < 0.0001), and the high ISS (p = 0.045). COVID-19 Pandemic had a very strong trend (p = 0.058) for increased mortality.

Conclusions: Our study has shown that the numbers of hospitalized RTC trauma patients reduced by 33.5% during the COVID-19 Pandemic compared with the pre-pandemic period in our setting. This was attributed to the reduced motor vehicle, pedestrian and bicycle injuries while motorcycle injuries increased. Mortality was significantly higher during the Pandemic, which was attributed to increased ISS and reduced GCS.

Keywords: COVID-19; Death; Injury; Road safety; Road traffic collision; United Arab Emirates.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Monthly number of hospitalized road traffic collision trauma patients during the periods of March 2019–February 2020 (yellow bars) and March 2020–February 2021(red bars), Al-Ain City, United Arab Emirates
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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