Road Safety as a Public Health Problem: Case of Ecuador in the Period 2000–2019

Abstract

Background: Road safety is a significant public health problem because it causes negative consequences on victims and families. The objective was to analyze the most significant changes in traffic crashes in Ecuador during the period from 2000 to 2019. With data obtained from the National Institute of Statistics and Census, we performed the analysis to identify: the number of traffic crashes, the number of victims, and other study variables. Methods: Descriptive and analytical statistics and the contrast of proportions were used to analyze data from 2000 to 2019. Results: According to the ideal joinpoint analysis model, there was a significant decrease in the number of recorded traffic accidents from 2015 to 2019 of −8.54 per year, while the tendency to die increased in females (2.05 per year) and males (3.29 per year). The most common crash was a collision, and the automobile appeared as the most involved vehicle from 2015 to 2019. The hypothesis test contrast is used to determine if statistically significant differences exist between age groups by gender of the driver injured in the period 2017–2018. Conclusions: This study determines the most significant changes in the variables related to traffic crashes, where mortality due to this cause in the last four years has had a growth rate of 1.8% compared to collisions that presented a rate of −31.12%. The contrast of the hypothesis test shows significant differences in the injury level between males and female drivers, depending on the age group.