Epidemiology of severe burn among children in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Introduction
Burn among children is a global phenomenon both in economically developed and developing countries [1], [2], [3], [4]. Pediatric burns are responsible for a disproportionate share of injury death, disability, and health care resources utilization [1], [2], [4]. Many studies have estimated the epidemiology of pediatric burns but they have often yielded different results depending on the regions where the studies were conducted [1], [3], [5], [6], [7]. Burns are a particularly significant cause of morbidity among infants and toddlers. In fact, infants and toddlers have a higher burn rate than do older children, and the sequelae associated with these injuries often result in tragedy for both parents and children [1], [3], [6], [7]. This is caused by the pain and the trauma of dressings, procedures, hospitalization and emotional distress in a child, the mortality risk, the long-term rehabilitation and the cosmetic disfigurement.
The objective of this study was to investigate epidemiologic features of severe burns leading to hospitalization among children in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Further, considering a large proportion of population in Labrador is of Aboriginal ethnic background, a geographic comparison was conducted to identify possible differences between the two regions in the province.
Section snippets
Materials and methods
The province of Newfoundland and Labrador consists of two major geographical areas, the island of Newfoundland and a mainland section, Labrador (Fig. 1). The island is the easternmost extension of Canada, while Labrador is the most North Easterly coastal region of the Canadian mainland, and of continental North America. The province has a population of 509,000 (2010) and encompasses an area of 405,720 km2. Labrador comprises 72% of the land area of the province but contains only 5% of the
Age/sex-specific rates
During the study period, 157 hospital admissions were identified as resulting from burns for patients aged 0–16 years, representing an overall rate of 22.3 per 100,000 person-years (P-Y). The rate of burns among males and females were 27.7 and 16.6 per 100,000 P-Y, respectively (P = 0.006). The highest rate of childhood burns occurred within the 0–1 year group (88.8 per 100,000 P-Y) followed by children 2–4 years old (26.0 per 100,000 P-Y) (Table 2).
Geographical regions
Table 3 presents age-specific rates of burns
Discussion
The rate of hospital admission due to burns in this study (22.3 per 100,000) was higher than the Canadian national rate (12.6 per 10,000) [1]. In this study, a majority of the burn-injured children were under four years old. This age group is also seen as the most common age group for burns in other studies [1], [3], [5], [6], [7]. Children under the age of three–four often stay near their parents while they are cooking and therefore they are more exposed to burn risks. Many of those injuries
Conflict of interest
Declare no conflict of interest.
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