Journal of injury & violence research最新文献

Background: Helmet use has been introduced as one of the most highlighted strategies for preventing death and injury in motorcyclists. On the other hand, the cost of the helmet was introduced as a barrier to use. This study aimed at estimating the willingness to pay (WTP) of motorcyclists in Saqqez to buy and use safety helmets through the contingent valuation method (CVM).

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2021 in Saqqez County, Kurdistan Province, Iran. Sampling was performed by two-stage clustering through probability proportion to the size. The sample size was 570. A preliminary questionnaire was designed and administered for validity and reliability approval. Data analysis was carried out through linear regression models using STATA 15.

Results: In total, 510 questionnaires were analyzed. The motorcyclists' mean age was 31.37 years (SD = 8.48). Only 251 individuals (49.22%) had an appropriate license, and approximately 40% declared that they never used a safety helmet. The mean WTP was estimated to be 3900000 Rials (15/6 US$) through CVM. Motorcyclist age, helmet use by the motorcyclist friends, and socio-economic status were found to be significantly correlated with their WTP.

Conclusions: The effect of socio-economic status on motorcyclist WTP highlights the significance of adopting supportive policies in this regard, along with stakeholder participation from the private sector and insurance companies. Moreover, the positive effect of helmet use by friends on individuals' WTP shows that improving the general culture of traffic safety can be accompanied by promising results, especially for motorcyclists.

Background: Suicide is one of the most common causes of juvenile death. Screening suicide risk is quite challenging and even more difficult in subjects who have no psychiatric disorder or other suicide risk factors in their medical history. To date, the association of serum lipid profile and suicidal risk has been evaluated in patients with different psychiatric disorders, yielding conflicting results. Here, we aimed to investigate the lipid panel and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in the sera of people with a first episode of suicide attempt in western Iran.

Methods: A total of 159 suicide attempters and 186 volunteers without history of suicide, aged 18-35 years, were evaluated in this experiment. Blood samples were collected between 8-10 AM and kept at 37 °C for blood clotting. We then analyzed the concentration of various lipid markers, including triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and high-density lipoprotein (HDL), using a series of enzymatic reactions. Additionally, we determined the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) by dividing the total number of neutrophils by the total number of lymphocytes after conducting peripheral blood cell counts.

Results: The concentration of TG was 94.2±5.8 mg/dL in males and 92.3±5.3 mg/dL in females. TC was 136.3±3.6 mg/dL in males and 152.7±4.4 in females, with a significant decrease in comparison with the control subjects (p less than 0.0001). NLR was 4.34±0.9 with a significant increase compared with the controls (P less than 0.002). (TG), (TC) and (LDL) levels in suicide attempters were significantly lower than in the control groups. Nevertheless, serum (HDL) levels in male and female suicide attempters were significantly higher than in the control group. Furthermore, NLR was significantly lower in the subjects with suicide attempts compared with the controls.

Conclusions: Lower concentrations of (TG), (TC) and (LDL) along with higher NLR were associated with non-violent suicide attempts. These findings might be an effective tool in screening suicide risk in young adults.

Background: Every year over 200,000 motorcyclists are killed globally. One poorly understood risk factor for motorcycle crashes is the role of motorcyclists' ability to hear traffic and other sounds around them in all directions. Most motorcycle helmets protect the head and permit vision in the forward direction, but they impair the wearer's ability to hear. This study evaluated user perceptions of Protective Helmet with Earpieces Equipped, a novel system that affixes technology onto existing motorcycle helmets to allow motorcyclists to better hear the surrounding environment in all directions.

Methods: 59 Colombian traffic police agents who rode motorcycles daily completed self-report surveys about their traditional motorcycle helmet, used a Protective Helmet with Earpieces Equipped helmet for two months, and then completed a follow-up survey. We tested two hypotheses: (a) at follow-up compared to baseline, motorcyclists would report decreases in perceived safety, comfort, and ability to detect sounds with their traditional helmet, as well as increased fatigue and stress from motorcycling with their traditional helmet, and (b) at follow-up, motorcyclists would report high perceived safety and perceived importance of hearing traffic sounds in all directions while motorcycling. Wilcoxon signed-rank test evaluated hypotheses.

Results: Participants rated perceived safety while using their traditional helmet to be significantly lower after using the Protective Helmet with Earpieces Equipped compared to before using it (Z=-3.5, p less than .001). There were no changes in other variables assessed. Following use of the new helmet, participants reported greatly improved safety (M=4.56, SD=0.54, where 4=safer and 5=substantially safer) and perceived the importance of hearing traffic sounds in all directions as high.

Conclusions: Improved auditory perception could increase motorcyclist safety. Participating traffic agents felt the Protective Helmet with the Earpieces Equipped greatly improved their ability to hear and improved their motorcycling safety. Perceived safety while using their traditional helmet decreased following use of the alternative.

Background: Occupational injuries (OI) are a - significant source of social and economic costs. They can cause prolonged absences from work, loss of limb, and worker disability, among other negative consequences. In light of this, the present study aimed to evaluate the factors associated with OI in trauma centers affiliated with Mashhad University of Medical Sciences.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out among patients admitted to the trauma ward of four teaching hospitals in Mashhad during 2019-2020. Patients' data was collected in a checklist and trauma severity was assessed based on injury severity score. The Epworth questionnaire was completed for patients. Data was analyzed by SPSS 20.0.

Results: Out of a total of 13660 patients who were referred to the emergency department of four hospitals of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, 683 (5.15%) individuals suffered occupational trauma and entered the study. The mean (±SD) age and work experience of the participants were 34 (±10) and 10 (±9) respectively. Most of the participants were in the age group of 20-40 years. the most common mechanism of trauma was falling (p=0.00) and the most injury frequency was among manual working (p=0.01). There was not a significant association between trauma severity and demographic characteristics. Those who had falling or electric accidents had more severe trauma compared to other injured patients. (p=0.00) CONCLUSIONS: In general, the most burden of occupational accidents and in fact, the most serious injuries were related to men and manual workers. Also, most of the injuries happened through falls and cuts. The results of this study showed the need for serious policies to reduce occupational injuries.

Background: Epidemiology of maxillofacial injuries vary depending on geographic location, culture and socioeconomic condition. This study assessed etiology and pattern of facial fractures in children reported at Burdwan Dental College and Hospital, Burdwan, West Bengal, India.

Methods: Clinical files of 206 children with facial fractures were evaluated retrospectively. Diagnosis of fractures were confirmed by radiographic examination. Study period was from July 2018 to June 2022. Data collected were age and sex of the patient, site of fracture, and etiology of trauma. Descriptive statistics were used for statistical analysis with a P-value less than 0.05.

Results: There were 127 (61.7%) males and 79 (38.3%) females with a male to female ratio of 1.6:1. Within the study sample, the majority of facial fractures (n= 146, 70.9%) belonged to 6-to-9-year age group. Overall, falls (44.2%) and motor vehicles accidents (31.5%) were the two leading causes of trauma. Mandible fracture was the most common, accounting for 72.8% of cases. 74 patients (35.9%) with facial fracture had dental injuries.

Conclusions: Male predominance in facial fracture is seen. With age, frequency of facial fractures tends to increase. Falls are the main cause of facial fracture and mandible is the most common anatomic location.

Background: Previous studies have shown a reduction in pediatric trauma volume during COVID-19, but many have looked at a limited number of facilities, analyzed a narrow timeframe, or both. The objective of this analysis was to assess the impact of COVID-19 on pediatric trauma volume for a statewide sample during 2020. Based on previous literature, researchers hypothesized a reduction in volume during the implementation of these policies.

Methods: Retrospective cross-sectional analysis of five years (2016 - 2020) of Indiana's statewide trauma patient registry. Patients under age 15 were included. Those who were transfer patients or missing key data were excluded. In total, 10,926 patients were included in analysis. Baseline years (2016 - 2019) were compared to 2020 to estimate the impact of COVID-19 on pediatric trauma volume.

Results: Overall monthly volume of pediatric traumas were lower than baseline in March and April 2020 (though not significantly), but rebounded quickly and were above trend in the latter half of the year. Injury patterns differed in both mechanism and location from previous years. Gunshot wounds were more prevalent than previous years, while the volume of non-accidental traumas fell slightly. Injuries that occurred in private residences rose significantly, while fewer took place in schools.

Conclusions: Results indicated an initial drop in injury volume consistent with previous findings, but these were offset by increased volume in the second half of 2020. The growth in gun violence is concerning and warrants additional research. Changes in behavior in response to the pandemic such as reduced participation in sports and use of playgrounds, reduced driving, and increased time at home help explain the changes observed in injury patterns. These findings emphasize the continued need for pediatric trauma care during the pandemic.

Background: Drowning is a worldwide problem. Scholarly publications about drowning prevention play a crucial role in bringing data to policy makers and prevention specialists. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of published articles related to unintentional drowning prevention included in the comprehensive, curated injury literature database, SafetyLit®.

Methods: Thorough searches of drowning-related search terms in English and non- English translations identified articles published in journals between 2000 and 2022.

Results: There was a 3-fold increase in publications between 2000 and 2022, with 2,937 articles published in 941 journals. Articles were published in 20 different languages. Five journals published 16% of the articles and sixty-one top journals published 50% of the articles. Eighty-nine percent of the top journals were included in PubMed; 82% were indexed in MEDLINE®; and professional areas of expertise of article authors spanned 18 categories.

Conclusions: This study can facilitate journal selection for drowning researchers to ultimately increase the publication of scientific literature globally.

Background: Patients discharged against medical advice do not receive adequate treatment and have a greater risk of readmission. This study assessed the rate of discharges against medical advice following assault-related penetrating trauma, with secondary aims to evaluate long term pre/post-injury hospitalizations and mortality.

Methods: Adult assault-related penetrating injuries admitted to a Level 1 Trauma Center were identified in the prospectively maintained database. Chart review was conducted for hospitalizations ± 5 years from index injury and statewide mortality data was used to identify deaths outside of hospital care.

Results: Out of a total of 1,744 assault-related penetrated injuries, 3.2% (52/1630) of survivors discharged against medical advice. Reasons for discharge against medical advice included: unknown (38%), home/child/family/pets (25%), unhappy with care/restrictions (23%), and work/money/other (13%). Post-discharge mortality did not differ between routine (6.5%) and against medical advice discharge (3.9%). Against medical advice and routine discharge had similar rates of any hospitalization (38.5 v 28.2%) and trauma hospitalization in prior 5-years (35 v 36%). However, significantly more against medical advice discharges had prior hospitalizations involving drug or alcohol abuse (65 v 38%), but not mental health diagnosis (55 v 55%). Significantly more against medical advice discharges have post-injury hospitalizations compared to routine discharges (48 vs 26.5%); however, include similar rates of repeat traumatic injury (36 v 32%).

Conclusions: Those with against medical advice discharges were significantly more likely to have prior hospitalizations involving drug or alcohol abuse and significantly higher rates of post-injury hospitalizations. However, we did not see an increase in repeat traumatic injury or post-discharge mortality in those with against medical advice discharges when compared to those with routine discharges.

Background: Domestic violence is a deeply entrenched issue in Indian society, with global implications, especially for women's physical and mental health. Healthcare providers play important role in early identification and support of the victims. Medical interns, the future generation of Health care professionals, often acting as primary caregivers are uniquely positioned and expected to recognize and assist victims. This study aims to evaluate their knowledge, attitudes, practices, and readiness to manage domestic violence and its associating factors.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 157 medical interns at a Medical college and hospital in West Bengal, India, from December 2022 to February 2023. Simple random sampling was done. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire, Medical Intern Readiness to manage domestic violence scale (MIREDS), validated after adoption from Physician Readiness to manage Intimate partner violence scale (PREMIS). Ethical approval was obtained, and participants gave informed written consent for inclusion. Satisfactory threshold was determined to be more than 50 percent. Data analysis was performed using MS Excel and SPSS software, including descriptive and inferential statistics, with a significance level of p less than 0.05, along with logistic regression analysis.

Results: Only 45.2% of medical interns demonstrated satisfactory knowledge, 54.8% had a satisfactory attitude. Most interns (91.7%) exhibited poor practice in dealing with domestic violence cases, only 31.2% considered themselves ready to manage domestic violence cases. Interns who attend more patients was found to have better attitude. Positive associations were found between knowledge, attitude, and readiness to manage domestic violence cases among doctors .

Conclusions: A substantial proportion of medical interns demonstrated inadequate knowledge, negative attitudes, and poor practice and inadequate readiness to manage domestic violence. Comprehensive training and education with cultural sensitivity training along with more practical exposures are in need to address this issue properly.

Background: Sexual violence (SV) is a serious public health problem affecting millions of people each year. The main aim of this article is to provide a large-scale snapshot of the field of knowledge in SV research using a scientometric approach.

Methods: Documents were retrieved from the Web of Science database. Then, a scientometric study was carried out on a sample of 65,610 documents. Co-citation and co-occurrence measures have been calculated and related networks have been drawn using Citespace and Biblioshiny software.

Results: The main findings indicate that research in SV has increased significantly in recent years. On the other hand, the publication of about one-third of these documents by a single author is due to the special nature of this topic and its taboo in many societies. In addition, a large number of multimedia documents demonstrate the role and importance of multimedia resources in SV studies. Despite the attention to SV research by poor or developing countries to research in the field of SV, 95% of the documents have been published by 20 developed countries. Additionally, the general research approach has changed from criminology to psychology.

Conclusions: Therefore, it seems that the discussion of psychological disorders in the occurrence of sexual violence reveals a new approach to SV. The concepts related to SV have been linked to broader areas than in the past. This, along with emphasizing prevention topics in the long term, will increase awareness of SV and reduce the possibility of abuse of vulnerable people.