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. 2025 Mar 23;15(1):10007.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-94995-y.

The national and provincial burden of transport injuries in Iran between 1990 and 2021

Amin Abbasi  1 , Moloud Balafar  1 , Mahboub Pouraghaei  1 , Samad E J Golzari  2   3 , Maryam Soleimanpour  4 , Sajjad Ahmadi  1 , Hassan Soleimanpour  5
Affiliations

The national and provincial burden of transport injuries in Iran between 1990 and 2021

Amin Abbasi et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Transport injuries (TIs) are a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide, and Iran, with its rapid demographic transitions in recent decades, is no exception. This study aimed to assess the burden of TIs in Iran and its provinces from 1990 to 2021. Estimates from the Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) 2021 were used to report age-standardized rates (ASRs) for the prevalence, incidence, mortality, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) of TIs by sex, age group, injury type, province, and Socio-demographic Index (SDI). In 2021, Iran recorded 1.147 million (95% uncertainty interval (UI): 1.014 to 1.287 million) incident cases of TIs with an age-standardized incident rate of 1341.9 per 100,000 (95% UI: 1193.7 to 1495.1). Compared with 1990, its prevalence, incidence, death, and DALY rates decreased by - 52% (95% UI: - 54% to - 50%), - 52% (95% UI: - 55% to - 50%), - 62% (95% UI: - 65% to - 58%), and - 64% (95% UI: - 67% to - 61%), respectively. At the provincial level, Tehran (233.1; 95% UI: 191.3 to 304) had the lowest age-standardized DALY rate, while the highest DALY rate was for Sistan-Baluchistan (2155.3; 95% UI: 1866.2 to 2478.3). In addition, age-standardized DALY rates were mainly higher for males, the 20-24 age group, and provinces with a lower SDI. Despite a significant decrease in TIs in Iran since 1990, they still pose a significant burden, with notable disparities across provinces and demographic groups. Targeted prevention programs focusing on high-risk populations, such as young adults and lower-SDI provinces with lower SDI, are recommended.

Keywords: Epidemiology; Global burden of disease; Iran; Transport injury.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study was registered with registration number: 75348. All methods were implemented in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations. Furthermore, all procedures in the study involving human participants were performed in accordance with the ethics standards of the institutional/national research committee and with the Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethics standards. The ethics committee of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences approved the study (IR.TBZMED.REC.1403.956). Consent for publication: The data presented in the manuscript and its supplemental files included no details on the patients and, thus, no consent was required for publication.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Age-standardized point prevalence (A), incidence (B), death (C), and DALYs (D) rate for transport injuries (per 100,000 population) globally, in the MENA region, in Iran, and in Iran’s provinces in 2021 by region and sex. DALY disability-adjusted life-years, MENA Middle East and North Africa.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Percentage change in the prevalence rate (A), incident rate (B), death rate (C), and DALY rate (D) for transport injuries (per 100,000 population) globally, in the MENA region, in Iran, and in Iran’s provinces from 1990 to 2021, by region and sex. DALY disability-adjusted life-years, MENA Middle East and North Africa.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Prevalent cases count and prevalence (A), Incident cases count and incidence rate (B), Death cases count and death rate (C), and the number of DALYs and DALY rate (D) for transport injuries (per 100,000 population) in Iran, by age and sex in 2021; shading indicates upper and lower uncertainty intervals of 95%, respectively. DALY disability-adjusted life-years, MENA Middle East and North Africa.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Age-standardized point prevalence (A), incidence (B), death (C), and DALYs (D) rate for transport injuries (per 100,000 population) in Iran, in 2021 by injury category. DALY disability-adjusted life-years.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Age-standardized DALY rates of transport injuries for 31 provinces of Iran in 2021 by SDI; expected values based on the sociodemographic index and injury rates across all provinces are marked by the black line. The observed age-standardized DALY rates are shown as 32 plotted points for each province from 1990 to 2021. Provinces with a higher-than-expected DALY rate are above the black line, and provinces with a lower-than-expected DALY rate are below. DALY: disability-adjusted life-years; SDI: socio-demographic index.
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