Road traffic injury immune delusion syndrome among commercial motorcycle riders in Ogbomoso, Nigeria

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of road traffic injury immune delusion syndrome and its association with risky behaviours among commercial motorcycle riders in Ogbomoso, Nigeria. It was a community based cross sectional study. The instrument used in collecting data was a semi-structured interviewer administered questionnaire. Information collected included socio-demographic characteristics, risky behaviours and immunity to road traffic injury. Analysis was done using stata 12 software. The results were displayed in tables and cross tabulation of variables were also done. Chi squared test was used to test for significant associations between categorical variables. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. A total of 111 commercial motorcyclists were recruited with a mean age of 37.0±10.2 years. More than one-third (43, 38.7%) of the riders believed that they are immune to road traffic injury and majority (37, 86.0%) of them that believed that they are immune cited prayer as their form of immunity. Though, nearly all the immune riders owned a crash helmet, nearly one-half (19, 44.2%) of them rarely use the crash helmet (p = 0.20). The immune riders had greater proportion of riders who usually receive phone calls (6, 14.0%) (p = 0.004) when riding or ride when it is raining (4, 9.3%) (p = 0.95). The non-immune riders had greater proportion (61, 91.0%) of riders who usually give safety gap (p = 0.01). Road traffic injury immune delusion syndrome is highly prevalent among commercial motorcycle riders in Ogbomoso and it is associated with risky behaviours like non use of crash helmet, riding when raining, receiving phone call when riding and not giving of safety gap.