oa Seat Belt And Mobile Phone Use Among Drivers In Doha City: An Observational Study

Worldwide 1.24 million deaths occur annually due to road traffic injuries. Additionally, 20-50 million are injured or disabled. Similarly, within the Gulf Cooperation Council countries injury and mortality due to road traffic injury are high. In the State of Qatar, for example, the road traffic fatality rate for the year 2010 is estimated to be 14 per 100,000. Young adult males are disproportionately affected. Road safety risk factor laws namely, seat belt use, driving under the influence of alcohol, helmet use and speed management exist in Qatar but enforcement is lax. An additional new risk factor causing distraction while driving and causing road traffic injury and fatalities is the use of mobile phone whilst driving a vehicle. Currently, in Qatar baseline national data pertaining to seat belt and mobile phone use among drivers is not available. We have thus conducted an observational study to estimate the prevalence of these two variables among vehicle drivers in Doha. Additionally, we will examine and present the associations between phone and seat belt use, and variables such as the gender of the driver, type of vehicle and the time of the day during which the observations were made. Furthermore, policy implications of the study findings will be discussed. Acknowledgement: This work is supported by the Biomedical Research Program at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, a program funded by Qatar Foundation.