Epidemiology of burns in Iran during the last decade (2000-2010): review of literature and methodological considerations

The approach to burn prevention, to be effective in a particular area, should be based on sound knowledge of etiological patterns of burns injuries and must take into account the geographical variations and socioeconomic differences in burn epidemiology. Although many articles are published on burns epidemiology in Iran, a holistic view of burn epidemiology in Iran is not well presented in literature. In this study, a wide literature review was made on articles published regarding burns injuries in Iran. Pubmed, Embase, Scopus, and Iranian scientific information (SID) databases were searched for information on epidemiology of burns in Iran during the years 2000-2010. During the investigation we found that few Farsi journals were not indexed in SID during the earlier years of the decade, so to increase the chance of capturing necessary information these were checked by hand. As the second source, available data from the Iranian National Home Injury Registry Database (INHIRD) during two Iranian calendar years in the period 2001-2003 were used to extract necessary information. The results of this review helped in defining the magnitude of the burns problem, exploring the role of gender and age in burns, defining the agents causing burns, burn extent, burn mortality and place of injury occurrence. Some areas with paucity of information as well as methodological pitfalls in published research were identified and discussed.