Work

Quality of life, anxiety and depression among non-fatal road traffic accidents victims in South India

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Background Road Traffic Accidents (RTA), whether fatal or non-fatal can be the cause of substantial financial hardships and significant mental health issues to victims and their families. The purpose of this paper is an attempt to understand the ‘quality of life’, anxiety, and depression levels among the victims of RTA. Methods A total of 407 RTA Non-fatal victims randomly selected and approached for data collection: using socio-demographic and accident information, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and WHO Quality of Life tools. The four domains of Quality of Life, education, and age are employed along with the Quantile Regression approach to examine how they affect the dependent variable of Depression score. Results Non-fatal victims were classified into ‘Severely Injured’ and ‘No Serious Injury’. Age, Education and expenditure on RTA treatment were compared, except Age and other two variables were statistically significant. The four domains of quality of life also significantly differ between these two groups. Anxiety is the most important variable which contributes almost in all the quantiles of depression followed by Psychological health, Social relationship, Environmental Health and Age of the RTA victims. Conclusions With the consequence of ‘Severely Injured’, RTA victims are found to have worse QoL scores and more depression. Age, social relationships, and anxiety are all linked to depression. Following medical treatment, RTA sufferers must undergo psychosocial counseling to lessen their anxiety and enhance their quality of life.

Source: Social Sciences & Humanities Open

DOI: 10.1016/j.ssaho.2025.101689

Authors: Palaniappan Marimuthu, Bontha V. Babu, Suchismita Mishra, Manoj Kumar Sharma, Priya Senthil Kumar, Kasi Sekar

Institutions: National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Indian Council of Medical Research, Madras Medical College

Language: English

Topic: Traffic and Road Safety

Subfield: Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,180