Road traffic injury immune delusion syndrome among commercial motorcycle riders in Ogbomoso, Nigeria

Amole Isaac Olusayo¹*, Oyelade Bolaji Oyetunde², Odeigah Louis Okeibunor³,  Oladeji Sunday Adedokun¹ and Aderibigbe Sunday Adedeji⁴

¹Department of Family Medicine, Bowen University Teaching Hospital, P. O. Box 15, Ogbomoso, Nigeria.

²Lautech Health Centre,  Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, P.O. Box 1708, Ogbomoso, Nigeria.

³Department of Family Medicine, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Nigeria.

⁴Department of Community Health, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Nigeria.

*Corresponding Author E-mail: amoleio@yahoo.com; Tel: +2348057078851

Accepted 19 February, 2015

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of road traffic injury immune delusion syndrome and its association with risky behaviours among commercial motorcycle riders in Ogbomoso, Nigeria. It was a community based cross sectional study. The instrument used in collecting data was a semi-structured interviewer administered questionnaire. Information collected included socio-demographic characteristics, risky behaviours and immunity to road traffic injury. Analysis was done using stata 12 software. The results were displayed in tables and cross tabulation of variables were also done. Chi-squared test was used to test for significant associations between categorical variables. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. A total of 111 commercial motorcyclists were recruited with a mean age of 37.0±10.2 years. More than one-third (43, 38.7%) of the riders believed that they are immune to road traffic injury and majority (37, 86.0%) of them that believed that they are immune cited prayer as their form of immunity. Though, nearly all the immune riders owned a crash helmet, nearly one-half (19, 44.2%) of them rarely use the crash helmet (p = 0.20). The immune riders had greater proportion of riders who usually receive phone calls (6, 14.0%) (p = 0.004) when riding or ride when it is raining (4, 9.3%) (p = 0.95). The non-immune riders had greater proportion (61, 91.0%) of riders who usually give safety gap (p = 0.01). Road traffic injury immune delusion syndrome is highly prevalent among commercial motorcycle riders in Ogbomoso and it is associated with risky behaviours like non use of crash helmet, riding when raining, receiving phone call when riding and not giving of safety gap.

Keywords: Risky behaviour, Motorcycle riders, Immunity, Crash helmet, Ogbomoso, Nigeria.