Abstract

PURPOSE
For prevention and suitable administration, the effect of age on the severity of injuries in traffic accidents should be considered when evaluating a patient, but there have not been enough epidemiological studies that evaluate the age factor in traffic accidents. For that reason, we investigated old-aged patients who were involved in traffic accidents (65 years old or more) and who were admitted to the emergency department of a college hospital in an urban city of Korea.
METHODS
We collected data from traffic-accident patients who came to the emergency room of a university hospital in Seoul from Jan.1, 2004 to Dec.31, 2005. We compared their abilities to ambulate and the RTSs (Revised trauma scores) by using a LSD (least significant difference), linear regression.
RESULTS
A total of 1460 patients were included. The mean RTS of all traffic-accident patients was 7.77+/-0.280. The scores for drivers and passengers, motor-cycle drivers and passengers, bicycle drivers and passengers, and pedestrians were 7.79+/-0.21, 7.78+/-0.22, 7.54+/-0.25, 7.77+/-0.20, and 7.80+/-0.21 respectively (p=0.000). There was no statistically significant difference between the RTS of patients over 65 years and that of other patients. In a regression analysis, the number of patients over 45 ages who were able to ambulate was lower than that of younger people, independently of other influencing factors (B=-0.330, R-square = 0.243, p=0.000).
CONCLUSION
We expected that RTS of old age group more than 65 years old will significantly lower than that of others, but there was no statistically significant difference.

• Keywords: Traffic accidentsMotor vehiclesRevised trauma scoreAge Factors