Comparison of injury patterns in road traffic accidents for elderly and very elderly trauma patients in Malaysia

Objectives: To examine the difference in injury patterns between elderly (aged 60-74 years) and very elderly (aged 75 years and above) groups from road traffic accidents. Methods: A total of 362 geriatric patients (aged 60 years and above) with major trauma following road traffic accidents in Malaysia extracted from the National Trauma Database (NTrD) from 2007 to 2011 were included in this study. Results: Median age of the geriatric patients was found to be 67 years, with majority male patients (85%), of Malay ethnicity (48%) and sustained blunt injury (99.7%). Most of them had low injury severity, hemodynamically stable and more than half sustained injuries to head and neck region (54.7%). Very elderly group had significantly higher mortality rate than elderly group (P <0.001) with the increase in odds of mortality persisted even after adjustment for physiological status and injury severity (Odds Ratio, OR: 2.75, 95% Confidence Interval, CI: 1.51-5.05, P=0.001). Conclusions: Injury patterns from road traffic accidents and its associated fatalities involving older people had emerged to be public safety concerns in Malaysia. Findings suggested extra attention was recommended especially in the care of very elderly patients.