A Systematic Review of the Application of Road Safety Valuation Methods in Assessing the Economic Impact of Road Traffic Injuries

Abstract

Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are increasingly claiming lives, particularly of those living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). To evaluate the economic consequences of RTIs, their financial impact on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been investigated by several studies using road safety valuation methods. This in turn has been used to quantify the resources required for investment on appropriate countermeasures to reduce the severity and frequency of RTIs. To investigate the frequency of use of road safety valuation methods in assessing the economic impact of road injuries, a robust systematic review was carried out with the aid of EPPI-reviewer software. The analysis of the evidence gathered showed that 55% of the included studies used the willingness-to-pay (WTP) method, 29% used human capital (HC), 11% used restitution cost and 5% used other methods. In high-income countries (HICs), the predominant method used was WTP, while HC was more common for middle-income countries. In addition, it was found that 49% of the studies in this field were conducted on HICs, whilst 4% focused on low-income countries (LICs). This indicates that there is a gap in the use of road safety valuation methods for LICs in the literature and therefore a need for further research.