Citation

Fatmi Z, Hadden WC, Razzak JA, Qureshi HI, Hyder AA, Pappas G. BMC Public Health 2007; 7(1): 152.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC)

DOI

10.1186/1471-2458-7-152

PMID

17623066

PMCID

PMC1933417

Abstract

BACKGROUND: National level estimates of injuries are not readily available for developing countries. This study estimated the annual incidence, pattern and severity of unintentional injuries among persons over five years of age in Pakistan. METHODS: National Health Survey of Pakistan (NHSP 1990-94) is a nationally representative survey of the household. During this survey through a two-stage stratified design, 18, 315 persons over 5 years of age were interviewed to estimate the overall annual incidence, pattern and severity of unintentional injuries for males and females in urban and rural areas over the preceding one year. Weighted estimates were computed adjusting for complex survey design using 'surveyfreq' and 'surveylogistic' options of SAS 9.1 software. RESULTS: The overall annual incidence of all unintentional injuries was 45.9 (CI: 39.3-52.5) per 1000 per year; 59.2 (CI: 49.2-69.2) and 33.2 (CI: 27.0-39.4) per 1000 per year among males and females over five years of age, respectively. An estimated 6.16 million unintentional injuries occur in Pakistan annually among persons over five years of age. Urban and rural injuries were 55.9 (95% CI: 48.1-63.7) and 41.2 (95% CI: 32.2-50.0) per 1000 per year, respectively. The annual incidence of injuries due to falls were 22.2 (95% CI: 18.0-26.4), poisonings 3.3 (95%CI: 0.5-6.1) and burns were 1.5 (95%CI: 0.9-2.1) per 1000 per year. The majority of injuries occurred at home 19.2 (95%CI: 16.0-22.4) or on the roads 17.0 (95%CI: 13.8-20.2). Road traffic/street, school and urban injuries were more likely to result in handicap. CONCLUSIONS: There is high burden of unintentional injuries among persons over five years of age in Pakistan. These results are useful to plan further studies and prioritizing prevention programs on injuries nationally and other developing countries with similar situation.

Language: en