Page 14 - Delaware Medical Journal - July 2016

FIGURE 1
General accident locations throughout Delaware. a) Left panel showing accident locations throughout the state, b) center panel showing kernel density clustering and street maps for Wilmington (top) and Dover (bottom), and c) right panel showing normalized accident data across the state.
Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
to Characterize Pediatric Pedestrian Motor Vehicle
Accidents in the State of Delaware
Ravi Talati, DO; Angela Stegmuller; Tim Niiler, PhD; Huiyun Xiang, MD, MPH, PhD; Alfred Atanda Jr., MD
Background: Pediatric pedestrian motor vehicle-associated trauma is a significant public health concern for children. We aimed to use geographic information systems (GIS) to examine the relationship between motor vehicle pedestrian injuries in children and the demographics of the region in which they occurred for the state of Delaware.
Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of collected data from the Delaware State Trauma Registry from January 1, 2002, to December 31, 2012. The records of all patients younger than 18 years who went to one of the state’s six trauma centers during the study were reviewed. For each injury event, patient demographic information was recorded, and latitude/longitude coordinates of the injury site were determined. Median income, minority population, education level, and percentage of males and children in the census tract were obtained from state census data. Analysis of variance was used to characterize how the frequency
of injuries correlated with a particular census tract’s demographic composition. GIS mapping software was used to identify specific “hot spots” throughout the state where the frequency of traffic crash events was the highest.
Results: Urban and poorer areas had the highest number of injury events, with Wilmington having the highest frequency of injuries per capita. Census tracts with low median income, lack of high school degree, and increased percentage of African Americans and females had significantly higher injury counts compared with other census tracts.
Conclusions: In the state of Delaware, children in urban and poor areas are disproportionately affected by motor vehicle-associated pedestrian injuries. Specific risk factors for accidents in these areas need to be identified to facilitate the development of focused prevention strategies.
Key Words: census tracts, GIS mapping, motor vehicle accidents
206 Del Med J | July 2016 | Vol. 88 | No. 7
Abstract