Epidemiology of Injuries

Accident

Definition

• Unexpected, unplanned occurrence of an event which may

involve injury.

• Occurrence in a sequence of events which usually produce

unintended injury, damage or property death.

What are Injuries?

A body lesion due to acute exposure to energy beyond the physiological tolerance

Why have epidemiologists taken an interest in injuries?

• Injuries have been identified as a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in both the developed and
developing world.

• They present a challenge to epidemiologists to understand

✓ The basic underpinnings of their occurrence (the frequency in which they occur,

✓ the risk factors for their occurrence and to develop intervention programs to reduce their impact

Types of accidents
 Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) *Industrial Accidents *Domestic accidents *Railway accidents *Violence
Causes of Injuries
Abnormal Energy Transfer
*Mechanical Energy (moving objects) *Thermal *Electric *Chemical *Radiation
Causes of accidents
 Accidents are complex phenomena with multiple causation
 Etiological factors are classified to
*Human (Age, Gender, Education, ……) *Environmental (Road, weather,…..) *Agent
Human factor Environmental Vehicles:
Age:15-44 yrs(50% mortality)
• Sex: More in males  Related to Roads:  High speed
• Education: Low educational – Defective and narrow roads  Poorly maintained vehicles
status – Defective lay out of cross-  Overloaded bus
• Medical condition (illness, Heart roads,  Low driving standards
attack, Impaired vision, Fatigue, … – speed breakers Risk factors for motor vehicle
• Lack of protection – Poor lighting crashes
– Helmet  Bad Weather
– Safety belts

Do injury patterns differ around the world?

How to Measure the Problem of Accident
Mortality:
Mortality Rate
 Number of deaths due to accidents out of 100 total deaths
Death Rate per 1000 registered vehicles per year
Number of accidents or fatalities as a ratio of number of vehicles per km OR passenger per km.
Morbidity:
Measured in terms of

 Slight injury *Serious injury

Disability: Measured in terms of

• Temporary or Permanent disability • Partial or Total disability

Injury Prevention

Accident Investigation

*Who was present? *What activities were occurring? *What happened? *Where and what time? *Why did it
happen?

The Haddon Matrix

use for planning, resource
allocation, strategy identification

Effective prevention should::

*be permanent , not temporary * depend on passive not on active contribution of individuals

• not affect productivity * not transfer the risk to another place * be applicable to similar sites