The national burden of road traffic injuries in Thailand

We quantified the uncertainty around national RTI mortality estimates based on a verbal autopsy study that was conducted to correct for the large proportion of ill-defined deaths in the vital registration system. The number of nonfatal RTI victims was estimated using hospital and survey data. We used the proportion and severity of long-term disabilities from a recent Thai study, instead of the standard Global Burden of Disease assumptions, to calculate the burden due to long-term disability. To evaluate changes over time, we also calculated the burden of RTIs in 2004 using the method and assumptions used in 1999, when standard Global Burden of Disease assumptions were used.The total loss of disability-adjusted life years due to RTIs was 673,000 (95% uncertainty interval [UI]: 546,000-881,000). Mortality contributed 88% of this burden. The use of local data led to a significantly higher estimate of the burden of long-term disability due to RTIs (74,000 DALYs [95% UI: 55,400-88,500] vs. 43,000 [UI: 42,700-43,600]) using standard Global Burden of Disease methods. However, this difference constituted only a small proportion of the total burden.The burden of RTIs in 2004 remained at the same high level as in 1999. The use of local data on the long-term health consequences of RTIs enabled an estimate of this burden and its uncertainty that is likely to be more valid.Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are an important public health problem worldwide, with the majority of RTIs occurring in low- and middle-income countries [1]. A survey in 2008 in 178 countries reported that 91% of deaths related to RTIs are in low- and middle-income countries, which contain only half of the world's registered vehicles [2]. A number of interventions have contributed to a significant reduction in the burden of RTIs in developed countries [3,4]. These interventions are generally implemented and evaluated in high-income countries, but they may also be effective in low- and middle-income countries [5]