Identifying and Validating Alcohol Diagnostics for Injury-Related Trauma in South Africa: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Study.

Background: The burden of alcohol use among patients with trauma and the relative injury risks is not routinely measured in South Africa. Given the prominent burden of alcohol on hospital trauma departments, South Africa needs practical, cost-effective, and accurate alcohol diagnostic tools for testing, surveillance, and clinical management of patients with trauma.

Objective: This study aims to validate alcohol diagnostics for injury-related trauma and assess its use for improving national health practice and policy.

Alcohol diagnostic validation for injury-related trauma: Findings from a pilot study.

Introduction: Alcohol consumption is a key driver of the burden of violence and injury in South Africa (SA). Hence, we aim to validate various alcohol assessment tools against a blood test to assess their utility for improving national health practice and policy.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional pilot study from 3 to 19 August 2022 at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, SA.

Overloaded and Unrestrained: A Qualitative Study with Local Experts Exploring Factors Affecting Child Car Restraint Use in Cape Town, South Africa.

(1) : Children in South Africa experience significant impacts from road injury due to the high frequency of road crashes and the low uptake of road safety measures (including the use of appropriate child restraints). The current study aimed to assess the feasibility of a child restraint program and to describe factors influencing child restraint use from the perspectives of clinicians, representatives of non-government agencies, and academics in Cape Town, South Africa. (2) : Qualitative interviews were conducted with 13 experts from government, academic and clinical backgrounds.

Affordability and Availability of Child Restraints in an Under-Served Population in South Africa.

Background: Child road traffic injuries are a major global public health problem and the issue is particularly burdensome in middle-income countries such as South Africa where injury death rates are 41 per 100,000 for under 5's and 24.5 per 100,000 for 5-14-year-old. Despite their known effectiveness in reducing injuries amongst children, the rates of use of child restraint systems (CRS) remains low in South Africa.

Looking back on 10 years of global road safety.

Every year more than 1.35 million people lose their lives on the road and tens of millions more are injured, some permanently. Since the early 2000s there has been renewed focus on the issue, with the United Nations, World Health Organization and the World Bank placing the issue higher on their agendas.

technical package: 22 interventions that could make a difference.

The : was produced and launched in May 2017 by the WHO to support road safety decision makers and practitioners in their efforts to significantly reduce the number of road traffic deaths in their countries. This Special Feature explains the process used to develop the package and how and why the 22 interventions were included. It concludes by encouraging researchers and practitioners to tailor their road safety packages to their own realities by following five practical steps.

Monitoring the Decade of Action for Global Road Safety 2011-2020: An update.

The United Nations Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC) was set up in 2004 in response to the recognised need for the United Nations (UN) system to encourage efforts to address the global road safety crisis. In 2010, the UN General Assembly Resolution 64/255 declared 2011-2020 the Decade of Action for Road Safety with the overarching goal of stabilising and reducing the forecasted number of road traffic deaths by increasing activities at national, regional and global levels. In 2011, a Plan of Action for the Decade of Action, a tool to support the development of national and local plans of action, was launched.

Alcohol use in South Africa: findings from the South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug use (SACENDU) Project.

Objective: To provide community-level public health surveillance on alcohol misuse in South Africa and the associated negative consequences.

Method: A descriptive, epidemiological study of alcohol use based on data gathered biannually from multiple sources over 4 years, including specialist treatment centers, trauma units, mortuaries, psychiatric facilities, and surveys of school students and arrestees. Networks were set up in five sentinel sites to facilitate the collection, interpretation and dissemination of data.