Risk factors associated with road traffic injuries at the prone-areas in Kampala city: a retrospective cross-sectional study.

Background: Road traffic injuries (RTIs) pose a disproportionate public health burden in the low and middle-income countries (LMICs) like Uganda, with 85% of all the fatalities and 90% of all disability-adjusted life years lost reported worldwide. Of all RTIs which are recorded in Uganda, 50% of cases happen in Kampala -the capital city of Uganda and the nearby cities. Identifying the RTI prone-areas and their associated risk factors can help to inform road safety and prevention measures aimed at reducing RTIs, particularly in emerging cities such as Kampala.

Methods: This study was based on a retrospective cross-sectional design to analyze a five year (2011 - 2015) traffic crash data of the Uganda Police Force.

Results: Accordingly, 60 RTI prone-areas were identified to exist across the Kampala. They were ranked as low and high risk areas; 41 and 19, respectively and with the majority of the latter based in the main city center. The bivariate analysis showed a significant association between identified prone-areas and population flow (OR: 4.89, P-value: 0.01) and traffic flow time (OR: 9.06, P-value: 0.01). On the other hand, the multivariate regression analysis only showed traffic flow time as the significant predictor (OR: 6.27, P-value: 0.02) at identified RTI prone-areas.

Conclusions: The measures devised to mitigate RTI in an emerging city like Kampala should study thoroughly the patterns of traffic and population flow to help to optimize the use of available resources for effective road safety planning, injury prevention and sustainable transport systems.