Social, Environmental And Behavioral Factors Related To The Traffic Incidents Involving Motorcycles In Asunción, Paraguay

Abstract

Introduction: Paraguay is one of the countries in the region with the highest traffic accident rate (17 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants), that is, 1.100 deaths per year. Losses involving motorcycles generates 50% of all deaths from this type of event, placing it as the fourth cause of premature death in Paraguay, thus becoming a real public health problem.
Objectives: To identify social and behavioral factors that facilitate exposure to the risk of suffering a traffic accident involving motorcycles. Method: Combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies through the application of individual and focus group questionnaires and interviews. The sample consisted of 54 people divided into two groups: key informants related to public and private institutions working on the subject and a sample of motorcycle users who had ever experienced a traffic accident Results: Factors were identified in the three moments involved in an accident (before, during and after), prioritizing factors in the Before (pre-event) and the “during” and with greater prioritization in the “person” element, that is , greater importance is attributed to individual and behavioral factors (alcohol consumption, lack of information, non-use of protection elements, etc.) and to a lesser extent to factors related to socio-economic environment (lack of control by the police, excessive ease of delivery of licenses, etc.). No factors related to the vehicle or the physical-road environment state were prioritized Conclusions: The prevention of traffic accidents involving motorcycles is a multicausal phenomenon that involves an articulated work between different sectors and analyze their causes from different dimensions. Intervening only on a personal level (behavior change) is not enough if this is not accompanied by interventions at the level of the social-economic and physical-road environment.