Investigating the Prevalence and Etiology of Accidents Recorded at Emergency Management Center of Gonabad City Using the Pareto Chart in 2018

Aims: Accidents are the leading causes of hospitalization and death. This study investigates the prevalence and causes of accidents recorded in Gonabad City emergency hospital service using the Pareto chart from 2016 to 2018. Methods & Materials: This descriptive and analytic study reviewed about 12281 emergencies recorded during 2016-2018, and the key variables such as the number of incidents, causes of incidents, age, gender, and time of incidents were collected for transport and non-transport incidents. Data analysis was performed using a Pareto chart in Minitab v. 16, SPSS v. 18, and EXCEL 2010. Findings: Based on the results, the highest rate of the incidents (542 cases) was related to falling and the lowest related to chemical and electrical burns with one case. Also, most complaints were related to accidents. In the present study, the rate of road accidents was higher than the street and urban accidents (8142 and 4208 cases, respectively). The most frequent accidents were related to motorcycles (748 cases) and then light vehicles (744 cases). The number of accidents that occurred in September and April is higher. Most male victims of accidents were between 16 and 20 years old. Conclusion: Since incidents related to the fall and clash with the mechanical force have the highest prevalence, it is necessary to allocate more financial and human resources to prevent such accidents. Because most admissions to emergency hospital services are related to accidents, and the rate of road accidents is high, it is essential to investigate the causes of accidents. Then, it is possible to raise public awareness to respect the safety regulations while driving and increasing the quality of roads.