Country roades

BACKGROUND: Injury is a global health concern, and injury-related mortality disproportionately impacts low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Compelling evidence from observational studies in high-income countries shows that trauma education programs, such as the Rural Trauma Team Development Course (RTTDC), increase clinician knowledge of injury care. There is a dearth of such evidence from controlled clinical trials to demonstrate the effect of the RTTDC on process and patient outcomes in LMICs...

BACKGROUND: Trauma is a significant cause of mortality, especially among individuals aged between 15 and 44 years, with a substantial burden falling on economically active populations. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) bear the burden of trauma-related deaths, accounting for over 90 % globally. In Egypt, trauma rates are increasing, primarily due to road traffic crashes (RTC), affecting males disproportionately. Blunt abdominal trauma, often caused by RTC, can lead to missed intra-abdominal injuries (IAIs) due to atypical symptoms...

This study investigates integration dynamics between the Chinese stock market and major developed counterparts-Australia, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US-focusing on portfolio diversification. Using a comprehensive analytical approach from 2012 to 2022, encompassing events like the Belt and Road Initiative, the Shanghai market crash, US-China trade tensions, and the COVID-19 pandemic, the research employs descriptive statistics, unit root tests, cointegration analysis, and VECM-based Granger Causality Tests...

Throughout the world, ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5 ) is the environmental factor that poses the greatest risk to health and most European citizens continue to be exposed to PM2.5 levels well above World Health Organization guidelines. Here we present a comprehensive PM2.5 modelling-based source allocation assessment in 708 urban areas in Europe. The results show that urban cores, together with their commuting zones, contribute an average of 22% to urban PM2.5 concentrations levels. The residential sector is the highest source sector in 56% of cities...

Geopolitical risks (GPR) arising from wars, terrorist acts and bilateral tensions. It has aroused global attention recently, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has further disrupted normal bilateral trade exchanges. However, this argument is still too general to capture the micro impact of geopolitical risks on internationalization in developing countries. This study examines the impact of GPR on firms' internationalization performance in China. Using Chinese A-share manufacturing listed firms from 2008 to 2019, this study investigates the relationship between GPR and firms' internationalization performance...

IMPORTANCE: Built environment plays an important role in development of cardiovascular disease. Large scale, pragmatic evaluation of built environment has been limited owing to scarce data and inconsistent data quality. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between image-based built environment and the prevalence of cardiometabolic disease in urban cities. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional study used features extracted from Google satellite images (GSI) to measure the built environment and link them with prevalence of cardiometabolic disease...

This study investigates the relationship between ambient temperature, weather conditions, and types of road accidents in Qazvin province, Iran. The research addresses a significant societal challenge of road accidents, particularly in developing countries like Iran. The objectives are to analyze the correlation between temperature and accident types and to develop a predictive model using data mining techniques. The study employs a quantitative approach, analyzing over 15,000 accident records from 2010 to 2020...

BACKGROUND: Numerous studies on the association between the human development index (HDI) and road traffic death rate (RTDR) merely focus on developed countries, not reflecting the relationship between the HDI components and RTDR in a time-trend analysis. Accordingly, this study analyzes the trends of RTDR and their association with the HDI and its components from 2000 to 2019. METHODS: The RTDR data of 154 countries were imported into the unconditional latent growth model (LGM) to assess the RTDR trends...

Ticks are a hematophagous parasite and a vector of pathogens for numerous human and animal diseases of significant importance. The expansion of tick distribution and the increased risk of tick-borne diseases due to global climate change necessitates further study of the spatial distribution trend of ticks and their potential influencing factors. This study constructed a dataset of tick species distribution in Xinjiang for 60 years based on literature database retrieval and historical data collection (January 1963-January 2023)...

Motorcycle safety remains a concern in low- and middle-income countries. This study addresses this issue by identifying hazardous scenarios for motorcyclists in Indonesia. We conducted a two-step cluster analysis and injury analysis to examine motorcycle accidents based on the police accident dataset (2020-2021) of Brebes Regency, Indonesia. We integrated the findings with accident self-reports from 104 young motorcyclists using a joint display to obtain a more comprehensive insight. As a result, we identified four hazardous traffic scenarios: motorcycle-to-vehicle collisions on median roads, motorcycle-to-vehicle collisions on non-median roads, motorcycle-to-pedestrian collisions, and single-motorcycle collisions...

BACKGROUND: Analyzing the glaucoma burden in "Belt and Road" (B&R) countries based on age, gender, and risk factors from 1990 to 2019 in order to provide evidence for future prevention strategies. METHODS: We applied global burden of disease(GBD) 2019 to compare glaucoma prevalence and Years lived with disabilities (YLDs) from 1990 to 2019 in the B&R countries. Trends of disease burden between 1990 and 2019 were evaluated using the average annual percent change and the 95% uncertainty interval (UI) were reported...

Public transport priority systems such as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and Buses with High Level of Service (BHLS) are top-rated solutions to mobility in low-income and middle-income cities. There is scientific agreement that the safety performance level of these systems depends on their functional, operational, and infrastructure characteristics. However, there needs to be more evidence on how the different characteristics of bus corridors might influence safety. This paper aims to shed some light on this area by structuring a multivariate negative binomial model comparing crash risk on arterial roads, BRT, and BHLS corridors in Bogotá, Colombia...

As the elderly population grows, there is a greater concern for their safety on the roads. This is particularly important for elderly pedestrians who are more vulnerable to accidents. In Spain, one of the most aged countries in the world, the elderly accounted for 70% of all pedestrian deaths in 2019. In this study, the focus was on analysing the occurrence of elderly pedestrian-vehicle collisions in Spanish municipalities and how it is related to the built environment. The study used the hurdle negative binomial model to analyse the number of elderly and non-elderly pedestrian accidents per municipality in 2016-2019...

Sphagneticola trilobata (L.) Pruski is a perennial creeping herb of the Asteraceae family, which is native to South America. It was introduced into Southern China as a groundcover in the 1970s (Zhang et al. 2023). Now it is mainly used for folk medicine to treat various kinds of inflammatory, incuding joint pain, rheumatic diseases, arthritis, in addition to treating persistent wounds, ulcers, and edemas (Gonçalves et al. 2022). In February and November 2023, powdery mildew symptoms were observed on 60% of S...

BACKGROUND: Kenya aims to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) by 2030 and has selected the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) as the 'vehicle' to drive the UHC agenda. While there is some progress in moving the country towards UHC, the availability and accessibility to NHIF-contracted facilities may be a barrier to equitable access to care. We estimated the spatial access to NHIF-contracted facilities in Kenya to provide information to advance the UHC agenda in Kenya. METHODS: We merged NHIF-contracted facility data to the geocoded inventory of health facilities in Kenya to assign facility geospatial locations...

PURPOSE: Traumatic brain injury (TBI), currently a major global public health problem, imposes a significant economic burden on society and families. We aimed to quantify and predict the incidence and severity of TBI by analyzing its incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability (YLDs). The epidemiological changes in TBI from 1990 to 2019 were described and updated to provide a reference for developing prevention, treatment, and incidence-reducing measures for TBI. METHODS: A secondary analysis was performed on the incidence, prevalence, and YLDs of TBI by sex, age group, and region (n = 21,204 countries and territories) between 1990 and 2019 using the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2019...

Road traffic injuries present a significant public health burden, especially in developing countries. This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesized global evidence on motorcycle helmet use prevalence by including 299 records across 249 articles involving 5,006,476 participants from 1982 to 2022. The findings revealed a declining trend in helmet use prevalence over the past four decades, with an overall prevalence of 48.71%. The meta-regression analysis did not find any statistically significant change in the overall prevalence...

A man in his 30s was involved in a road traffic crash in a small town in India, not equipped to deal with cases of brainstem death. He was declared brain-dead after a few hours. The patient's information was forwarded to organ specialists across the country, with the goal of preserving the patient's organs for donation via a tele-ICU model. The team comprising bedside doctors and remote intensivists communicating via an indigenously developed tele-ICU platform managed the patient for 24 hours, following treatment protocols and providing critical care to ensure that the patient's vital organs were optimally perfused...

BACKGROUND: Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) is a neglected tropical disease that usually occurs in rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa. It caused devastating epidemics during the 20th century. Sustained, coordinated efforts by different stakeholders working with national sleeping sickness control programmes (NSSCPs) succeeded in controlling the disease and reducing the number of cases to historically low levels. In 2012, WHO targeted the elimination of the disease as a public health problem by 2020...

OBJECTIVE: Road traffic crashes cause 1.19 million deaths and millions more injuries annually. The persistently high burden has drawn attention from national and international stakeholders worldwide. Unsafe road infrastructure is one of the major risk factors for traffic safety, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. METHODS: Aiming to eliminate high-risk roads in all countries, the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) developed a robust and evidence-based approach to support country transportation agencies...