Do young adults of Sri Lanka know what to do at a road traffic accident?

Abstract

Introduction: Road traffic accidents (RTAs) are responsible for thousands of deaths in Sri Lanka per year. Time sensitive emergency management following an RTA is critical to reduce morbidity and mortality. Laypeople are the first responders in most of these situations, it is important to assess the knowledge among the young adult generations, about emergency management in an RTA. Objective: To assess the knowledge about emergency management in RTAs among A/L students in Colombo district. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study comprising 239 A/L students in Colombo district was conducted to describe the socio-demographic and other related factors associated with knowledge about emergency management following an RTA. Awareness about common practices was assessed and categorized using a validated scoring system as good and poor. Exclusion criteria included A/L students below 18 years of age and students of foreign A/L examinations such as London A/L Examination and EDEXCEL. Snowball sampling technique was used to collect data via a self-administered questionnaire by a google form. The significance level was set at 5%. Results: Majority (57.3%) of the students had poor knowledge about basic emergency management. Almost half of the population (46.9%) had never received any training related to management of RTA. A statistically significant association was found between knowledge and previous training on emergency management. Conclusion: Most of the participants had inadequate knowledge and training which indicates there is a necessity to improve knowledge and to implement training on emergency management among lay persons.