A descriptive study on Epidemiology of Burns in a Medical teaching Institute of Kolkata

Background: Burns are a major cause of injury worldwide. According to World Health Organization (WHO) over 1 000,000 people are moderately or severely burnt every year and that more than 300,000 people die annually from fire-related burns worldwide but prevention programs are almost non-existent. Objectives: To investigate the causes and circumstances and severity and types of burn injuries sustained by the study population and to find out the association with different factors.Methods: A Prospective descriptive hospital based study was conducted in a tertiary care centre from 1st May 2012 to 30th April 2013. Cases were selected using systematic random sampling and final sample size was 403. Data were collected by interviewing the patients using pre-designed, pre-tested semi-structured schedule and also from medical records. Results: Mean age of participants was 29.71 years and 25.6% them belonged 15-25 years. Most of participants were females (53.8%) and housewives(21.3%). Almost 81.8% of the injury occurred accidentally and home was most common place (69%). Majority (64.8%) of burn was due to flame and anterior trunk was the commonest (74.9%) body part affected. Most of patients (61.3%) suffered from second degree burn and 23.1% patients had involvement of body surface area ≥60%. Significant association was seen with suicidal burn and female (P=0.002) and Hindus (P=0.009), homicidal burn and Muslims (P=0.000), domestic burn with female (P=0.000). Involvement of surface area were more among female(P=0.000).Conclusion: There is a need to promote education in all aspects of burn for prevention