International journal of injury control and safety promotion
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Int J Inj Contr Saf Promot · Jan 2014
A needle in a haystack: the use of routinely collected emergency department injury surveillance data to help identify physical child abuse.
A retrospective, descriptive analysis of a sample of children under 18 years presenting to a hospital emergency department (ED) for treatment of an injury was conducted. The aim was to explore characteristics and identify differences between children assigned abuse codes and children assigned unintentional injury codes using an injury surveillance database. ⋯ Superficial injury and bruising were the most common types of injury seen in children in the abuse group and the possible abuse group (26.9% and 18.8%, respectively), whereas those with unintentional injury were most likely to present with open wounds (18.4%). This study demonstrates that routinely collected injury surveillance data can be a useful source of information for describing injury characteristics in children assigned abuse codes compared to those assigned no abuse codes.
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Int J Inj Contr Saf Promot · Jan 2014
An epidemiological survey on road traffic crashes in Iran: application of the two logistic regression models.
Risk factors of human-related traffic crashes are the most important and preventable challenges for community health due to their noteworthy burden in developing countries in particular. The present study aims to investigate the role of human risk factors of road traffic crashes in Iran. Through a cross-sectional study using the COM 114 data collection forms, the police records of almost 600,000 crashes occurred in 2010 are investigated. ⋯ Sudden lane excursion (OR = 9.9, 95% CI: 8.2-11.9) and seat belt non-compliance (OR = 8.7, CI: 6.7-10.1), exceeding authorised speed (OR = 17.9, CI: 12.7-25.1) and exceeding safe speed (OR = 9.7, CI: 7.2-13.2) are the most significant human risk factors for traffic crashes in Iran. The high mortality rate of 39 people for every 100,000 population emphasises on the importance of traffic crashes in Iran. Considering the important role of human risk factors in traffic crashes, struggling efforts are required to control dangerous driving behaviours such as exceeding speed, illegal overtaking and not maintaining eyes on the road.
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Int J Inj Contr Saf Promot · Jan 2014
Homeless in America: injuries treated in US emergency departments, 2007-2011.
Despite being a high-risk population, epidemiological research about injuries among homeless individuals is limited. We sought to describe injury characteristics among individuals identified as homeless in the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), and to compare them to age- and sex-matched controls. We searched text narratives for all patients with product-related injuries who presented to NEISS emergency departments from 2007 to 2011 to identify homeless cases (N = 268). ⋯ The body part injured differed significantly between cases and controls for all age groups, with the exception of older adults. Among homeless cases, injuries occurred most frequently to the lower extremities, and sprains/strains, contusions/abrasions and burns were most common. Additional research on injury among homeless individuals is warranted in order to identify meaningful preventive strategies for this at-risk population.
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Int J Inj Contr Saf Promot · Jan 2013
Commercial vehicles and road safety in Pakistan: exploring high-risk attributes among drivers and vehicles.
Road traffic injuries are on the rise in developing countries with a disproportionately high number of crashes involving commercial vehicles. Baseline information on risk factors is necessary to develop targeted prevention programmes. A survey of commercial drivers was conducted at the largest bus and truck station in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. ⋯ Overall, 92 (11.2%) drivers reported having had a road crash in the last 5 years. Factors independently associated with the occurrence of crashes were alcohol use (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.1-4.4), poor vehicle maintenance (OR 3.4, 95% CI 1.7-7.01) and lack of seat belt use (OR 2.7, 95% CI 1.3-5.6). The high prevalence of high-risk attributes in the study population indicates a great need for targeted risk prevention.