Environmental risk factors contributing to traffic accidents in children: a case-control study

The aim of this study is to identify environmental risk factors related to road accidents in children of Tehran. This case-control study was performed in 2013. The cases were injured pedestrians aged 5–15 who were admitted to major hospitals supervised by Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The sample size for the cases was 273 and for the control group was 546. For the completeness of the clusters, 7 extra persons in case (total = 280) and 14 persons (total = 560) in control group were included. The interference of confounding variables assessed through forward conditional logistic regression. Result shows occurrence of traffic accidents was significantly associate with the width of the alleys or (<5 m: OR = 8.4, 95% CI: 3.3–21.5; 5–8 m: OR = 4.7, 95% CI: 1.8–12.2), distance from home to school((<100 m: OR = 1.7, 95% CI: 1.0–2.8), existence of parking lot (OR = 1.5, 95% CI: 1.0–2.3), traffic congestion (OR = 4.1, 95% CI: 2.6–6.4), traffic speed (OR = 2.1, 95% CI: 1.3–3.2) and existence of pedestrian bridges(OR = 4.2, 95% CI: 2.6–6.8). In the light of the important role of environmental factors in the occurrence of child traffic accidents, alleviating structural risk factors in addition to education and enforcement need more systematic efforts and planning by policymakers and urban planners to attain pedestrian safety goals.