Physical Trauma and Its Consequences in Rural and Semi-Urban Regions of Low and Middle Income Countries

Trauma is a common occurrence in the rural and semi-urban regions of the low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) due to existence of risky infrastructure, socioeconomic, and cultural environments. Causes of trauma in these regions range from the commonest road traffic accidents, falls, burns, and assaults to the scarcely reported range of farmyard accidents. A majority of persons who survive trauma in these areas are evacuated from the incident scene and transported to the health facilities by laypersons by using any available vehicles. This state of handling potentially exposes trauma survivors to secondary injuries, worsening the disability and heightening risk to prehospital death. The cost managing persons with trauma is overwhelmingly high for rural areas of LMICs. Most governments of LMICs are not prepared to cater for individual traumatic incidents; so, if a permanent disability is a final outcome, the injured person and the immediate family have to bear the whole rehabilitation cost. In most cases, these rehabilitation costs are either unaffordable or unavailable to the family leading to provision of inappropriate assistive functional and mobility devices. Broader consequences include the inability to engage in income generating activities, while continuously draining the family economy, hence a poverty-disability vicious cycle