Abstract:
Introduction: Road traffic accidents are being the critical public health problem that causes
disabilities and death in Ethiopia which could need due investigations. Though the magnitude of
road traffic accidents has been attempted to be documented so far, yet there is a lack of information
on the survival status of these patients.
Objective: The purpose of this study is to assess survival and predictors of mortality among trauma
patients with road traffic accident admitted to Addis Ababa Burn, Emergency and Trauma hospital,
2023
Methods: This was a retrospective follow up study that took place from 2019 to 2022 on 403
patients who suffered road traffic accidents in Addis Ababa burn, emergency and trauma (AaBET)
hospital. A sample size of 403 victims’ cards those selected randomly using simple random sampling
technique were retrieved for this study. The Kaplan-Meier survival curve used to estimate time to
occurrence of death. Cox’s proportional hazard model was used to determine the relationship
between independent variables and the outcome variable (time to death). The p-value < 0.05
considered as the threshold of statistical significance and 95% CI for adjusted hazard ratio was used
to measure the association between independent and outcome variables.
Results: During the follow-up period of the study 68 (16.87%) of Admitted RTA patients were died
giving incidence rate of 18.6/1000 person days and median survival time was 1 day. The results
obtained from the final Cox regression model indicates admission to ICU (AHR=4.99; 95% CI: 2.52,
9.88), loss of consciousness (AHR=4.56; 95% CI: 2.27, 9.16), those patients who need resuscitation
(AHR=10.48; 95% CI: 4.6, 23.85), developed complications (AHR=2.06; 95% CI: 1.07, 3.97) and
occurrence of hospital acquired infection (AHR=2.06; 95% CI: 1.07, 3.97) were predictors of
mortality
Conclusion: The incidence of mortality among road traffic victims admitted to Addis Ababa burn,
emergency and trauma (AaBET) hospital was 18.6/ 1000 person days and the median survival time
after admission was 1 day. Road traffic accident victims who were; being admitted to intensive care
unit, had hospital acquired infection, developed complications, and patients with history of loss of
consciousness should be given special attentions.
