Socio economic factors in road safety Duncan Vernon Road Safety Manager RoSPA.
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Transcript of Socio economic factors in road safety Duncan Vernon Road Safety Manager RoSPA.
Socio economic factors in road safety
Duncan VernonRoad Safety ManagerRoSPA
Social Factors in Road Safety
Presented by: Duncan Vernon
Road Safety Manager (England)
RoSPA’s mission is to save lives and reduce injuries
Social Factors?
Used interchangeably with “social determinants”
Defined by WHO as “the conditions in which people are born, grow,
live, work and age, including the health system”
Some examples: education, housing, employment, wealth, local
community
Of importance because they are responsible for much of the inequality
in health seen between and within different countries
RoSPA’s mission is to save lives and reduce injuries
Social Factors?
A model published by WHO in 1991 showing
the main determinants of health
RoSPA’s mission is to save lives and reduce injuries
What Does the Evidence Say?
RoSPA performed a literature review to inform a policy position
We found three main strands of evidence
The size and scale of injury inequality between the most and least affluent
The reasons behind this difference
What interventions have been tried and evaluated in order to address the
influence that these social factors have on injury rates
Will be published as “Social Factors in Road Safety” on the RoSPA
website
RoSPA’s mission is to save lives and reduce injuries
What Does the Evidence Say?
The literature showed an association between deprivation and injury.
Found strong consistency between studies over time and between
different areas in the UK
Different measures of deprivation gave similar patterns – whether area
based measures (e.g. The Index of Multiple Deprivation) or individual
measures (e.g. social class or occupational group)
The strength of the association was different between road user groups
– there was very strong evidence for child pedestrian and cyclists,
much weaker evidence for drivers
RoSPA’s mission is to save lives and reduce injuries
Why is there a Difference in Injury Rates?
Three main areas were identified
Exposure to risk
The road environment, habitation and local area
Social environment and deprivation
Sadly, much of the evidence was becoming dated
RoSPA’s mission is to save lives and reduce injuries
Why is there a Difference in Injury Rates?
Exposure to risk
Children in the quarter of families with the lowest income crossed 50% more roads
than those in the highest
Families were much less likely to own cars
Children more likely to walk to school and less likely to be accompanied
RoSPA’s mission is to save lives and reduce injuries
Why is there a Difference in Injury Rates?
The Road Environment, Habitation and The Local Area
High population density
Long straight roads with terraced housing, which can encourage higher vehicle
speeds
Studies of on-street parking have come to different conclusions
Leisure Facilities
Children end up playing on the street because there is nowhere else to play –
there is little garden space and local parks are seen as dangerous. Parents report
that at least they can keep an eye on their children outside the house
Limited number, awareness and take up of formal leisure activities
Worries about changing land use and parks being turned into car parks
RoSPA’s mission is to save lives and reduce injuries
Why is there a Difference in Injury Rates?
Social Environment and Deprivation
Family size
Single parent families – social isolation or a lack of social support, and being
caught in a poverty trap due to lack of affordable child care
Large families – overcrowded accommodation with more than one child per
bedroom, and supervision is more difficult
Do ETP initiatives connect?
Un-equitable distribution of road safety efforts – how do we assess need?
How do we take account of the barriers to people adopting the safer behaviours
that we want them to – are they intrinsic or extrinsic?
RoSPA’s mission is to save lives and reduce injuries
How can Road Safety Practice have an Influence?
Far fewer studies which look at how to address this problem than there
are defining it!
Within health, the idea of community participation and empowerment
has been suggested as a method of reducing inequalities
Much enthusiasm for it from communities but there are barriers to
engaging communities
Personnel issues – to do with the time that time people have to be involved and
the skills that people can bring
Planning issues – to do with a lack of funds or resources and an inappropriate
focus for the programme
Lack of empowerment as true within communities as between them
RoSPA’s mission is to save lives and reduce injuries
Finding new Partners within Public Health?
Many of the ways that people define and refer to health and wellbeing in
their own lives are also related to aspects of safety
Many of these social determinants of injury are similarly social
determinants of illness
These social factors can have a long term effects over the course of
their lives, and so injury prevention can look at more than addressing
immediate factors to an injury
Some potential examples of interventions with a long term influence:
Addressing fundamental concepts such as wellbeing
Early intervention and parental support
RoSPA’s mission is to save lives and reduce injuries
Conclusions
Social factors can have a large influence on the number of injuries on the
road
Addressing social factors within interventions is hard but taking them
into account when assessing need and measuring effectiveness will help
to build an evidence base
Some Public Health activities may already be having an (unmeasured)
influence on road injuries – making more links between public health and
road safety departments should help us to understand where there is
common ground
