Article Text
Abstract
Background Burn injury causes more than three-fourth deaths in Africa, Eastern Mediterranean and South-East Asia regions effecting females more than males. This study assesses the gender-related burn injury characteristics in South Asia.
Methods This prospective study was conducted at two main burn centres in Dhaka, Bangladesh and Karachi, Pakistan from October 2014 – January 2015. All adult (>17 years) burn injury patients were included in the analysis. Gender differences in patient demographics, burn injury characteristics and outcome were compared using Chi-square test for categorical and t-test for continuous variables. Ethical approval was taken from all collaborating and participating sites.
Results Of 1470 adult patients, 57.3% were males. Mean age of females was 36.85 ± 14.61 years and of males 33.49 ± 13.52 years. Among females, 81.6% were married and 63.7% among males (p-value<0.001). About 35.2% of females had no/informal education. Eighty% females were housewives and most males were manual-labourers (23.2%). For females, burns were common in kitchen (72.8%) while cooking (49.4%) and for males, industrial area (29.5%) during work (40.5%). Females suffered from flame (52.9%) and scalds (42.6%) while males had electrical burns (17.2%) in addition to flame (38.1%) and scalds (29.8%). Hot liquid was the common cause of burn in females (42%). Total body surface area(%) burnt was more in females(16.88 ± 20.85) compared to males (12.89 ± 17.47) (p-value<0.001). Around one-third of males and females were admitted. About 50% of admitted females and around 30% of admitted males died. The mean duration of stay at the burn centre was higher for females (19.17 ± 23.27) compared to males (13.85 ± 15.29) (p-value 0.0001).
Conclusions Compared to males, females with burn injuries are older and married and likely to have burn injury at home. Males are more likely to have burns at work. Females suffered from higher percentage of surface area of burn. There were more deaths in females.
- Burn injury
- gender
- burn centre
- South Asia