Journal of injury & violence research最新文献

Background: Unintentional injuries in the home are one of the threats to childhood quality of life which is considered as a social determinant of health. Regarding mother's leading role in taking care of the children in Iranian families, the present study was conducted to investigate mothers' home-injury prevention attitude and performance and its contributing factors in Sahand safe community, East-Azerbaijan, Iran.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in 2017. Sampling was done using "Random Sampling method" among all mothers having at least one U-5 child and attended the health centers to receive childcare services. A valid attitude questionnaire and safety performance checklist were used for data collection. Data were analyzed by SPSS-24, using descriptive (frequency, mean, etc.) and inferential statistics (chi-square, Kruskal-Wallis).

Results: The mean age of mothers was 30.58 (±5.01). About 65% of the mothers had primary or secondary school education. The mean score of mothers' attitude was 72.12(±6.79). More than 58% of the mothers had an appropriate level of attitude. The mothers' injury prevention performance mean score was 66.59 (±12.85). Family's socioeconomic status, mother's age, educational level, and job, father's job, age, and gender of the child were the contributing factors (p less than 0.05).

Conclusions: Most of the mothers have an appropriate level of home-injury prevention attitude but a low level of performance. Strengthening Primary Health Care system in safe communities would have a leading role in child safety promotion through increasing the mother's knowledge, attitude and performance level.

Background: Accidents and injuries are the leading cause of childhood morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to investigate the incidences of different causes of accidents in children under 6 years old.

Methods: This population-based cross-sectional study was carried out in one year (2016-2017) on a sample of 6000 children in Southern Iran with a multistage sampling method using a standard checklist for comprehensive child health monitoring.

Results: The annual incidence rate of accidents was 16% and the mean age of accident victims was 2.5±1.5 years. Of these, 17.3% and 14.8% were male and female, respectively. 25% of the children suffered from more than one accident. The most common causes of accidents were burns (16%), falls (14%), and accidents involving objects (10%). In multivariate analysis, a higher number of male children in the family and lower child age significantly increased the likelihood of accidents (p less than 0.05).

Conclusions: This study was a direct survey of the population, and showed that the incidence rate of accidents in children in southern Iran was in line with that of other regions of Iran, but less than the world average. There was no significant difference in accident etiology and only trends in etiology were found compared to studies using existing data.

The United Nations Office of Disaster Risk Reduction defines disaster risk as the "likelihood of loss of life, injury or destruction and damage from a disaster in a given period, and a product of the complex interactions that generate conditions of exposure, vulnerability and hazard". Racial and ethnic minorities in the United States have been shown to have increased vulnerability and risk to disasters due to links between racism, vulnerability, and economic power, based on disadvantage related to different disaster stages: 1) reduced perception of personal disaster risk; 2) lack of preparedness; 3) reduced access and response to warning systems; 4) increased physical impacts due to substandard housing; 5) likelihood of poorer psychological outcomes; 6) cultural insensitivity on the part of emergency workers; 7) marginalization, lower socio-economic status, and less familiarity with support resources leading to protracted recovery; and 8) diminished standard of living, job loss, and exacerbated poverty during reconstruction and community rebuilding. Moreover, given that psychiatric morbidity is predictable in populations exposed to disasters, mental health and psychosocial support programs should increasingly become a standard part of a humanitarian response. In the crisis and immediate recovery phase of disasters, the focus should be on making survivors feel safe and giving them assistance in decreasing their anxiety by addressing their basic needs and welfare. So, it is critical that governmental institutions, business, and non-profit organizations proactively find mechanisms to work collaboratively and share resources. Special attention and extra resources must be directed towards vulnerable and marginalized populations. In this editorial we share lessons learned from experiencing disproportionate impact of health crisis and advocate for the notion that recovery efforts must address trauma at individual, interpersonal and community levels, and be based in a healing justice framework.

Background: Development of construction and operation of subway rail transit system in populated cities of middle- and high-income countries along with the increasing population of its users, have exacerbated the safety problems of the users against incidents and emergencies in subway stations. Although subway emergency evacuation is considered by the governments and subway network organizations as a critical task related to passengers' safety at the time of emergency, the risk of mass evacuation in station is undeniable. The main objective of this study is to identify factors affecting safe evacuation of the population from subway station and to propose the strategies for addressing them based on experiences or opinions of stakeholders in Tehran Subways, Iran.

Methods: This is a qualitative study that was conducted between January 2017 and December 2018, in which a semi-structured interview was conducted for 17 participants among the senior managers, executive managers, subway station operations staff, and subway passengers in Tehran subway stations, in the Capital of Iran. In order to analyze the data of this qualitative study, the Graneheim and Lundman method was used and manifested content analysis approach was employed.

Results: Based on the findings of this study, the factors affecting safe evacuation of the population from subways station were identified in four main categories covering passengers, organization, communications, and environment. Then the main categories of "culture, interaction and cooperation of passengers", "correct and timely decision-making", "notification", and "location of emergency evacuation" were emerged as safe emergency evacuation challenges and the most important findings of this study; and strategies were proposed to improve the safety of passengers at emergency evacuation of subway stations.

Conclusions: In the present study, the lack of safe approach to improving passengers' safety in the development plan of Tehran subway rail transit network is a major concern for managers and operations staff. Therefore, changing the attitude of policy makers from focusing on the quantitative development of passenger transportation services to improving safety and then the quality of passengers' trip is taken into account as an urgent need to improve the safety of subway passengers.

Background: TBI, standing for Traumatic Brain Injury, is a leading cause of death worldwide; nonetheless, data on its management has hitherto been sparse. In view of the fact that brain lobectomy is a contentious issue in the management of TBI, we set out the current study to assess the mortality rate and outcomes of TBI with delayed contusion or Intracerebral Hemorrhage (ICH) undergoing lobectomy.

Methods: We evaluated 135 TBI patients with delayed contusion or ICH undergoing brain lobectomy from 2001 to 2013. Withal, the mortality and Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) and Glasgow Comma Scale (GCS) rates were assessed in these patients and the association in between was sought.

Results: The TBI patients undergoing brain lobectomy (77% male versus 23 % female) had a mean age of 43.4±20.3 years and experienced a survival rate of 62.2% (71% in females versus 60% in males). Favorable GOS was observed in 53% of male patients, compared with 27% in the females. Age was demonstrated to significantly affect the mortality rate (p=0.0001). Initial GCS score was associated with GOS as 79.1% of the survived patients with a GCS of higher than 9 on admission were discharged with favorable GOS.

Conclusions: The evidence from the present study indicates that lobectomy can be an acceptable surgical procedure in management of TBI patients with delayed contusion or ICH.

Background: Well-functioning health systems and effective preventive measures require registering the exact number and valid data of fatal injuries. The present study aimed to determine the completeness of fatal injuries reported by LMO with the use of the capture-recapture method and finding the reasons for those unregistered fatal injuries in Hamedan County.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Hamadan County from 22 August 2015 to 21 August 2016. The completeness of fatal injuries reported by LMO, as the main source of fatal injuries was estimated with the employ of the capture-recapture method including Health Department and Police. Log-linear modeling was used for statistical analysis. The number of fatal injuries that probably had not been detected in any three sources was estimated by using the GENLOG command.

Results: A total of 451 fatal injuries were registered in LMO for one year. The registries were included different amounts of detailed information from at least five variables in the Emergency Medical System (EMS) up to all detailed information in the LMO and Health Department. More fatal injuries occurred in males than females at all ages and the two-sex difference spectrum was wider between about 20 to 45 years old. Among cases of LMO, we found 29 unreported deaths. Therefore, the completeness of reported fatal injuries by LMO was estimated to be 86.9%.

Conclusions: Fatal injuries are under-reported by the main source of this type of death in Iran. Identification of fundamental causes, integrated death registry system, and using a standard cause of death classification are needed to promote the registration of fatal injuries.

Background: The relationship between weight indices and injuries and mortality in motor vehicle accidents is unknown. Systematic review studies addressing the collection and analysis of the relationship in investigations are very limited. The purpose of this systematic review is to determine the relationship between BMI, obesity and overweight with mortality and injuries and their severity and vulnerable organs after the motor vehicle accident.

Methods: The databases (MEDLINE/PUBMED, EMBASE, Web of Science, etc) were searched for relevant abstracts using certain keywords. Of all the articles, similar ones were removed considering different filters. The collected data were entered into the STATA SE v 13.1. The heterogeneity of the data was analyzed using i2 statistics. In addition, the estimates of the study were done based on the age group (children and adults) and the impact of obesity on different regions of the body.

Results: A direct relationship was observed between the overall BMI and the degrees of injuries (CI=0.503-1.139), and mortality due to motor vehicle accident (CI=1.267-1.471). A positive relationship was found between obesity and AIS+2 (CI=0.653-1.426), and AIS+3 (CI=1.184-1.741), and ISS (CI=1.086-1.589). Also, a negative relationship between overweight and injuries rates, and a direct relationship between overweight and mortality (CI=0.979-1.167), and injuries with index of AIS+2 (CI=1.178-0.768) and AIS+3 (CI=0.48-2.186) were found.

Conclusions: The prediction of injury, mortality and severity of injuries in the motor vehicle accident by the variable of obesity and overweight determines the need to design prevention programs for this vulnerable group at all levels.

Background: All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) have become popular for recreation use in recent years. Texas has had more ATV related fatalities than any other state in the nation, with rural Northeast Texas having even higher rates of injuries. There is limited data examining the relationship between ATV injuries and the length of hospital stay, as well as hospital costs. This paper examines both issues in children as well as adults.

Methods: The regional trauma registry was analyzed for all ATV related injuries between January 2011- October 2016. Injury Severity Score, Glasgow Coma Scale and if they are seen at a Level I Trauma center are predictive for both hospital length of stay and charges.

Results: Length of Stay was predicted positively by Injury Severity Score, Emergency Department Respiration Rate and facility at which patients were treated and negatively by Glasgow Coma Scale. Hospital charges were predicted positively by age, Injury Severity Score, facility of treatment, means of transportation, and Emergency Department pulse and negatively by Glasgow Coma Scale.

Conclusions: The study found that vital signs can be useful in predicting length of stay and hospital charges. This study not only confirms the findings of other studies regarding what predictors can be used, but expands the research into rural traumatic injuries. It is hoped that this data can help contribute to the development of algorithms to predict which patients will be most likely to require resource intensive treatment.

Background: Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are an important public health problem around the world, with the majority of RTIs occurring in low- and middle-income countries. This study aimed to determine disability-adjusted life years (DALY) of RTIs in the northeast of Iran.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we used the death registration system to calculate years of life lost (YLL) due to RTIs. To determine the years lost due to disability (YLD), hospital records of all people injured in road accidents were used. To estimate DALY, we used YLD and YLL to calculate DALY according to the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2003 guideline and the age/sex composition of the population was taken from the Statistical Centre of Iran (SCI) in 2016. All collected data entered into Excel software and performed calculations.

Results: Our findings showed that a total of 3403 RTIs and 132 deaths were recorded in 2016. The DALY was 38 per 1,000 of which 26.9 per 1,000 were related to YLL and 11.1 per 1,000 were related to YLD. The highest YLL rate in both sexes was in the 15-29 and 30-44 age groups with 49.8 per 1,000 and 46.0 per 1,000, respectively. This reflects a sex ratio of DALY in males (57.7 per 1,000) to females (8.6 per 1,000) was 6.7.

Conclusions: It seems to be necessary, appropriate effective intervention programs and periodic evaluations are required regarding prevention and reducing traffic accidents mostly in middle-aged men.

Background: Fatal intimate partner violence occurs among adolescents, which is often when first exposure to intimate partner violence occurs in the United States. However, research mainly examines intimate partner violence-related fatalities between adult intimate partners. Such findings document that non-intimate partners, corollary victims, are at risk for violence during intimate partner violence incidents, as well. Research examining fatal intimate partner violence among adolescents is scant. This study informs public health of the extent and circumstances of fatal adolescent intimate partner violence by quantifying the burden across a five-year span; describing fatal victims by demographics and precipitating circumstances; and examining differences by victim type.

Methods: This study used data from 17 states of the United States in the National Violent Death Reporting System to examine fatal intimate partner violence-related incidents involving at least one adolescent intimate partner (15-19 years of age) from 2011-2015. IPV-related death cases were guided by the intimate partner violence surveillance criteria prescribed by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Decedents were subdivided into intimate partner victims, perpetrator victims, and corollary victims. Victims were described by demographics, victim descriptors, and precipitating circumstances of death. Annual trends and descriptive statistics were calculated.

Results: There were 93 intimate partner violence-related fatal incidents among adolescents with 116 decedents. A firearm was the predominant weapon. Crises, arguments, jealousy, and physical fights were common precipitating circumstances. Corollary victims represented 18% of all victims, 65% were intimate partner victims, and 17% perpetrator victims. Corollary victims were primarily linked to the suspect by other intimate partners, and friends and acquaintances.

Conclusions: Intimate partner violence is a preventable public health problem. This study documents that intimate partner violence among adolescents can result in deaths of intimate partners and corollary victims. Effective prevention should begin in early adolescence and incorporate shared and protective risk factors to have the greatest impact on adolescent IPV.