Injuries in rural and urban areas of Agra district: an observational study

Abstract

Background: Injuries are becoming major public health problem worldwide and since India is also passing through a major socio-demographic, epidemiological and technological transition; injuries are coming up as an emerging health problem. Objectives: To find out prevalence of “Injuries”, causative mechanism, place of injury & distribution in rural & urban area of Agra district. Material & Methods: It is type of observational study in rural & urban area of Agra district. The area to be surveyed was selected by multistage stratified random sampling technique. A recall period of three months for minor injuries & one year for major injuries or deaths due to injury was used. A total of 4 villages covering 2439 population and in urban area 2 mohallas & 2 slums covering 2410 population were surveyed. Data collected was entered on Fox. Pro (vs 2.6) and analyzed by SPSS (vs. 10). Results: A total of 93 persons in rural and 142 persons in urban had major while 147 peoples in rural and 200 peoples in urban had minor injuries during the recall period. Among the injured most common mechanism for major & minor injury was due to fall (45.16% & 36.73%). Regarding place maximum major injury occur at home (32.26%) in rural while in urban it was road/highway (46.48%) but for minor it the home being commonest place in both rural & urban (40.82% & 55%). Conclusions: Considering the high morbidities due to injuries focusing health education efforts based on local epidemiology and behavioral practices is needed.