Epidemiology of injuries presenting to the accident centre of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Ghana

Abstract

Background Injuries directly lead to 5 million deaths every year, accounting for 9% of all deaths worldwide. While knowledge of the pattern of injuries is essential to plan health interventions to reduce the incidence of injuries, these are not thoroughly described in Ghana. The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiology of injuries seen at the Accident centre of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Ghana’s main referral hospital. Method A retrospective review of two-year records of all patients who attended the Accident centre of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital from January 2016 to December 2017 was done. Data on the cause of injuries was the main focus of this review. Results A total of 17,860 patients’ records were included in the study. There were 12,116 (67.8%) males and 5,744 (32.2%) females. The ages of the patients seen during the period ranged from three (3) days to 101 years. The overall mean age was 27.9 (±18.2). Majority of the injuries resulted from road traffic accidents and falls, accounting for 39.1 and 19.7% respectively. Conclusion Road Traffic accidents (RTA), especially motorcycle related, are a significant cause of injuries in Ghana. Future studies should focus on interventions that can reduce the incidence of RTA’s to reduce the number of injuries that present to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.

Injuries and their related household costs in a tertiary hospital in Ghana

“…The most prevalent cause of injuries in our sample population was traffic injuries, but we observed that falls and interpersonal violence represented a proportionate amount of injury causes. This observation mirrors the general pattern of injured patients who present to the study site [ 26 ], and seems to be common in both developed and emerging countries [ 27 ].…”

Profile, risk factors and outcome of occupational injuries reported to the emergency department in a tertiary care hospital in South India

“…[ 1 ] The prevalence of occupational injuries among the injuries reported to tertiary teaching hospital in Ghana was 3%. [ 5 ] This discrepancy is due to the fact that the study was conducted in a multispecialty tertiary care centre with wide range of emergency cases covering all specialities and also minor injuries from the workplace which would have either gone unreported or been treated in other hospitals. Also, other studies have shown that, among those with work-related injuries about 60% of them has seen primary care physician.…”

Healthcare Providers’ Factors Influencing Trauma Care Preparedness in Accident and Emergency Department of Selected Hospitals in Kakamega County, Kenya

“…In sub Saharan Africa, trauma results from gender-based violence, conflicts, motor vehicle crashes, and political unrest among others. The burden of injuries is said to be decreasing in developed countries and increasing in sub-Saharan Africa (Blankson, 2019). In South Africa, a middle-income country, major causes of trauma include road traffic injuries and violence.…”

“…In Ghana, road traffic accidents are the main source of trauma. 25.5% of the road accidents involved motor cycles (Blankson ,2019). In Kenya, road traffic accidents are the leading cause injury (36%).…”