Patterns of vulnerability to non-fatal injuries in Sudan: initial evidence from a national cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Background Successful injury prevention requires identification and targeting of particularly vulnerable groups. Little is known about injury vulnerability patterns in Sudan. This paper aimed to fill this gap using survey data. Methods Data from the Sudan Household Health Survey were used. This was a national cross-sectional interview survey of 83 510 individuals selected by multistage cluster random sampling. Multivariable Poisson regression was used to investigate the association of cause-specific injury that received care by traditional healers, outpatient care and inpatient care, and those that received only inpatient care, with age, gender, area of residence (urban or rural), socioeconomic status and education. Relevant interactions were tested. Results Independent of other sociodemographic variables, men were at higher risk of road traffic injury ( prevalence ratio (PR): 3.3 95% CI 2.4 to 4.7), falls (PR: 1.5, 95% CI 1.3 to 1.9), assault (PR: 3.0 95% CI 1.8-5) and mechanical injury (PR: 2.0 95% CI 1.2 to 3.1) that received any form of healthcare. Those aged 65 years and over also had the highest risk of those injury causes, while children under 5 years were the most likely to suffer burn injuries. Socioeconomic status was associated with assault (PR for the richest group 0.4 95% CI 0.2 to 0.8). Vulnerability patterns for injury that received inpatient care were fairly similar for some causes. Conclusions In Sudan, existing disease prevention and health promotion programmes should expand to target men, children under 5 years, elderly people and those of low socioeconomic status with injury prevention interventions. Further research is needed to investigate the context-specific proximal risk factors that shape the various vulnerability patterns observed. INTRODUCTIONInjuries cause significant mortality and morbidity worldwide, accounting for almost 10% of world deaths, and are the leading cause of death among men aged 15-49 years.1 Injuries carry considerable social and economic ramification, particularly in low and middle income countries.2-4 This makes them highly relevant to the development agenda and to poverty-related issues such as maternal mortality and childhood illnesses that for long have been the focus of public health initiatives in those countries.Effective injury prevention requires the identification of vulnerable groups and specific settings where maximum benefit can be reaped of targeted prevention interventions, healthcare provision and research. Non-fatal injury patterns in particular point to groups that are at higher risk of spending time with disability, with all the ensuing social and economic consequences. Injury prevention principles are universal, and the effectiveness of many interventions has been established. [5][6][7][8] However interventions are delivered at national and subnational level, and cross-country as well as withincountry variations in vulnerability to injury are expected. For example, while road injuries in Tanzania were more common in urban areas, 9 there wa...

Associations between social determinants of health and interpersonal violence-related injury in Cameroon: a cross-sectional study

“…tenant and urban wealthy clusters. 46 Similar associations between lower SES and IPVRI have been identified in household survey data from Sudan, 30 South Africa 29 and sub-Saharan Africa 49 using the wealth index model and in hospital data from Ethiopia 22 23 and The Gambia 19 using household income.…”

“…In Africa, for example, an estimated 70% of countries lack access to vital or civil registration homicide data, which greatly impedes research on the burden of IPVRI and its associated risk factors. 2 To fill this gap, recent research has used hospital-level [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] or demographic survey [29][30][31][32][33][34] data to better characterise the burden of IPVRI in sub-Saharan Africa. There remains a need for further research on IPVRI, though, as many of these studies have been limited by small sample size, a broad definition of interpersonal violence, lack of focus on risk and protective factors or absence of a control group.…”

Causes of nonfatal occupational injury in the private sector in Tunisia

“…Younger and less educated employees were vulnerable to falls (Abdalla, 2014; Moshiro et al, 2005). Contrary to our findings, urban–rural variations in fall circumstances were reported in other low- and middle-income countries where falling was more common in rural areas (Abdalla, 2014; Mock et al, 1999).…”

“…Younger employees (15–24 years) and older (55 years and over) were more vulnerable to this kind of injury. Whereas the leading causes of nonfatal occupational injuries in Sudan (Abdalla, 2014) were road traffic, falls, assault, and burns. Men aged 65 years and over were the most vulnerable groups.…”

Association of sociodemographic and household characteristics with non-fatal burns among children under the age of 10 years in Sudan: an exploratory secondary analysis of the Sudan Household Health Survey 2010

“…Similar to other parts of the world, children in Sudan had the highest rate of non-fatal burns among all other age groups 10. Although LPG is commonly used, mainly in urban settings, solid fuels—for example, wood and charcoal––are used throughout the country for cooking in open fires, or local stoves normally placed outdoors and low on the ground.…”