Socio-cultural predictors of injuries: life-course experience of hospitalised injuries during the past century in the Velestino study

Abstract

Retrospective reviews provide unique opportunity to assess changing approaches to trauma in recent history and identify modifiable behaviours through the lessons of the past. The objective of this paper is to depict the nearly one-century long, life-course injury experience of seniors residing in Velestino, an agricultural Greek town, and comment on neglected determinants and transitional patterns following historical and socio-cultural events in the area. The life-course experience of non-fatal injuries, requiring hospitalisation, has been reported by N = 643 study participants, aged 65-102 years. Injuries were grouped and assessed in three ways: chronologically, by body part and by type. Overall, 124 injuries have been recorded over the past 70 years; the majority sustained by men (58.6%), and the highest number of injuries occurred during the recent decades, 1980s-1990s. For the age groups 26-45 and 46-65 years old, traffic (37.5% and 22.2%) and occupational (25.0% and 22.2%) events have been the commonest cause of injury, whereas injuries occurring at home were primary hazard (25.8%) for the elderly. Moreover, meaningful historical connections with warfare and migration movements were made. In retrospect, socio-cultural factors emerge as important predictors of certain injuries, pointing to the number of factors that should be taken into account when designing injury-prevention programmes.

Population-based incidence and cost of non-fatal injuries in Iran: a consistent under-recognized public health concern

“…Young, urban women had high-risk characteristics for FAIs, and single males had highrisk characteristics for MAIs. Female 43 or male gender, 25,27,38 younger age group, 25,29,44 urban 25,41 or rural residency, 35,43,45 and other sociodemographic factors 46 have been reported to be risk factors for injuries, dependent on the study setting. For all injuries, FAIs and MAIs, the most common description was as follows: non-paid work (activity), home (place), inanimate mechanical force (mechanism), upper limb (site of injury) and open wound (type of injury).…”