Mobile applications for road traffic health and safety in the mirror of the Haddon’s matrix

BACKGROUND: Road traffic accidents have been one of the leading causes of death. Despite the increasing trend of road traffic apps, there is no comprehensive analysis of their features and no taxonomy for the apps based on traffic safety theories. This study aimed to explore the characteristics of available mobile apps on road traffic health/safety and classify them with emphasis on Haddon’s matrix. METHODS: The researchers examined the mobile applications related to road traffic health/safety using qualitative content analysis. Google Play was searched using a combination of the keywords. Haddon’s matrix was applied to analyze and classify those mobile apps residing in the categories of Road Traffic health & Safety, and Road Traffic Training. RESULTS: Overall, 913 mobile apps met the inclusion criteria and were included in the final analysis. Classification of the apps based on their features resulted in 4 categories and 21 subcategories. A total number of 657 mobile apps were classified based on Haddon’s matrix. About 45.67% of these apps were categorized as the road traffic health & safety group. CONCLUSIONS: Haddon’s matrix appears to have the potential to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of existing mobile apps in the road traffic accident domain. Future development of mobile apps in this domain should take into account the existing gap. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12911-021-01578-8.