The objective of this article is to provide systematic reviews of the literature on important strategies to prevent motor vehicle injuries. The Injury Control Research Centres (ICRCs) funded by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention identified 9 important motor vehicle injury prevention strategies. A systematic review of the literature in 9 different computerised databases was conducted to identify relevant controlled trials. A total of 54,078 citations were reviewed; 1,111 met initial screening criteria. The reports for these citations were obtained and critically reviewed by the ICRCs. Standard criteria for inclusion of articles in the review and for evaluating the methodological quality of the articles were applied. Few randomized controlled trials were found; most controlled studies were either comparisons over time and/or across different populations. Nevertheless, these studies were able to be summarised to provide meaningful conclusions about the effectiveness of various interventions to decrease morbidity and mortality from motor vehicle crashes. It is concluded that a large body of literature on motor vehicle injury exists. The summary of this literature will provide useful information to direct policy and future research efforts. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting