Globally, road traffic injuries (RTIs) have been increasing in many regions of the world in contrast to declining trends in highly motorized countries [1]. The majority of RTI related deaths occur in low-income and middle- income countries. Within country, the dispersion of RTIs has also been reported across age groups, gender, economic status and areas [2,3]. Differences in RTIs across areas might reflect lack of access to or scarcity of local goods, services, resources and amenities (area material deprivation) in specific areas as shown by a study investigating the association between area material deprivation/urbanicity and young unlicensed driver in- volvement in fatal crashes in the United States [4]. At the area level, accumulated evidence supports an asso- ciation between economic deprivation and low popula- tion density and severe RTIs after taking account for the
* Correspondence: paibulss@gmail.com
1Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Rama VI, Ratchathevee 10400, Thailand
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
adult or total population of motor vehicle drivers [5,6]. The positive association of young unlicensed drivers in- volved in fatal crashes in less densely populated areas was demonstrated by a number of studies [