Risk of in-itinere accident in primary health care professionals

Background Traffic accidents represent a priority for public health since they are responsible for high mortality tolls, elevated economic costs and a significant social impact. Ecuador ranks as the seventh country in the World with a higher mortality rate. Aims To know the risk level of in-itinere accidents for workers of a primary care facility. Methods Descriptive transversal study through the application of a basic survey from 136 sanitary and non-sanitary professionals. Results The means to commute used by workers corresponds to public transportation (57.4 per cent) and automobile (26.5 per cent), being the time invested in traveling to work is greater than 30 minutes. A statistical significant relationship can be observed between the transportation mean used to commute to the medical center and the time invested with the ending score of the risk to suffer a TA (p<0.05) for workers. Conclusion A necessity to establish road safety programs rises to control such risk factors that influence the possibility to suffer a commuting accident for the sanitary personnel.