Title : The pay-period-what is means for road traffic accidents in Botswana
Abstract:
Background:
Road traffic accidents (RTAs) continue to claim millions of lives across the globe, including in the developing world. In several settings, there is evidence suggesting that there could be some relationship between the occurrence of road traffic accidents and pay period. We, therefore, sought to investigate the relationship between pay-period and the burden of RTAs in Botswana.
Methods:
Data for the year 2017 were obtained from the Botswana Police department, detailing the number, severity, and aggregated figures by month of all RTAs. The severity of the accidents was classified as fatal, serious, minor and damage to vehicle only, while the dates were dichotomized into non-pay period being 1st-17th of each month and pay-period as from 18th-4th of the next month. The pay-period is consistent with the Botswana government employees’ salary calendar. Two sample proportion test was used to determine any difference between the non-pay-period and pay-period.
Results:
A total of 16,049 road traffic accidents were registered between January-November of 2017. About 60%(n=9,684) occurred in the pay-period, while the rest occurred in the non-pay- period. By type, the accidents were mainly damage to the vehicle only type (n=9,147) accounting for 57% by proportion. Across all the months, there was a statistically significant difference between the proportion of RTAs that occurred during the pay-period versus non-pay-period, overall and even through the types of accidents(p<0.05).
Conclusion:
There is a statistically significant proportion of RTAs that occur during the pay-period versus non-pay-period. Studies to investigate factors leading to the significant increase in RTAs in the pay-period are needed.
