Knowledge and practice of pre-hospital care after a road traffic injury among three-wheel drivers and associated factors in selected police areas in Colombo district.

Abstract

Abstract- Globally, the number of road traffic deaths remains unacceptably high. However, effective pre-hospital services can minimize many crash consequences. Usually, basic pre-hospital care is delivered by a lay first responder, mostly another driver. The aim of this study is to describe the knowledge and practice of pre-hospital care after a road traffic injury among three-wheel drivers and associated factors in selected police areas in Colombo district, Sri Lanka. A community based descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in Kollupitiya, Bambalapitiya, and Kirulapona police areas. A sample of 384 three-wheel drivers registered in above police areas were recruited using simple random sampling method. Structured pretested interviewer administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive analysis was used to determine level of knowledge and practices regarding pre-hospital care. To identify the associated factors for knowledge and practice chisquare test was used. SPSS version 25 was used for data entry and analysis. Ethical approval was obtained from Ethics Review Committee, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Only 31.5% of the drivers had first aid training. Even though majority (52.9%) of the drivers had good knowledge, 65.2% had poor practice towards pre-hospital care. Advanced age and having a first aid training were significantly associated with the good knowledge (p<0.05). Drivers with a previous first aid training within last ten years, having less hires per day and having good knowledge were significantly associated with better first aid practice. Although knowledge regarding pre-hospital care was adequate, practice of pre-hospital care was inadequate.