A study by a team of doctors from NIMHANS has found that head injuries decreased substantially during the COVID-19 lockdown, a period that saw a decrease in traffic volume, prohibition of alcohol sales and strict surveillance by the police.
There was a marked spike in cases of head injuries on the very day alcohol sales resumed in the State. Within 24 hours of lifting the ban on alcohol sales, there were more than 50 cases of head injury, almost double the number seen during the lockdown period.
The study titled ‘Traumatic brain injury during COVID-19 pandemic — time-series analysis of a natural experiment’ was published in British Medical Journal Open (BMJ Open) earlier this month.
Lekhansh Shukla, Assistant Professor at the Centre for Addiction Medicine (CAM) at NIMHANS who is the corresponding author of the study, told The Hindu that the study aimed at finding out if the incidence and pattern of traumatic brain injury (TBI) changed during the pandemic.
This study, jointly done by researchers from the Department of Neurosurgery and CAM, covered data from December 1, 2019, to January 3, 2021, a total of 400 days including all lockdowns.
Safety regulations
“Our findings showed that people complied with safety regulations like helmets/seatbelts more during the lockdown, probably because of stricter policing,” he said.
B. Indira Devi, senior professor, Department of Neurosurgery, and Dean, Neurosciences, at the hospital, who is one of the lead authors, said head injury is a leading cause of death and life-long disability. “India contributes approximately a quarter of trauma-related fatalities and head injuries globally. Road traffic accidents are the most common cause of head injury. Overspeeding, not wearing helmets/seat belts, and drunk driving are some risk factors for traffic accidents,” she said.
“We wanted to understand how much each of these factors contribute to the problem of head injury. These factors are difficult to control and measure during usual times. The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown provided a natural experiment where we could study these factors,” she said.
Dr. Shukla said the team of researchers used data that is routinely collected from all head injury cases in the emergency department of NIMHANS. “This gave us information on how many head injury cases came every day, the circumstances of the injury, and if alcohol use was reported. We combined this data with daily road traffic data reported by Google Community Mobility reports. This data uses GPS signals to estimate how many people were there on the roads/parks etc. Google started this service to help countries in their efforts to contain the spread of the virus. We also used daily alcohol sales data from Bengaluru Urban and rural districts,” he explained.
Alcohol exposure
“We were primarily interested in a measure of daily alcohol exposure for the population in these districts. However, as there is no source for this data, we used the daily sales data from the records of Karnataka State Beverage Corporation Limited (KSBCL). This is the sole agency which supplies alcoholic beverages to vendors across the State. For Bengaluru, the supply is through 24 KSBCL depots (7 rural and 17 urban),” the doctor said.
“In summary, this study indicates that stricter control of drunken driving and decongestion of roads can substantially decrease accidents and head injuries,” the authors added.
