elderly perceptions about road traffic injuries in shiraz, southern iran

Older pedestrians are at risk of higher rates of injuries and mortality. this could be due to increased physical and cognitive impairments in elderly people. most available data on injuries in the elderly do not include their perceptions and concerns regarding accidents when they go out. the aim of study was to identify elderly perceptions regarding road traffic injuries (rtis) in shiraz, a city in southern iran. in this crosssectional study, 165 participants over 60 years of age were conveniently sampled from 10 public parks and 3 mosques. data was collected using questionnaires administered by a trained interviewer. the questions captured demographic characteristics and concerns about rtis when going out. data was entered into spss version 16, and the significance level was set at 0.05. of the participants, 55.4% (n = 92) were men and 44.2% (n = 73) were women. the mean age (sd) of participants was 70.1 (6.86). more than 60% of participants were concerned about rtis when going out (more than 40% were concerned often or always), and only 33.5% of participants were never concerned about rtis when going out. sixty percent of participants reported that they never go out at night. motorcycles were the vehicle that caused the most trouble for the elderly while walking outside of their homes and crossing the road or intersections. attention to elderly concerns about rti is important; from the perspective of elderly people, this would lead to the provision of a safer environment for elderly pedestrians. this agecompatible environment would cause fewer rti concerns for elderly people when they are performing outdoor activities and would allow them to walk outside more often, even at night.