Living in rural areas is a major risk factor for severe burn injury in Turkey

Abstract

Abstract. The surroundings andlifestyle that are typical of rural areas are less safe than those of urbanareas. This retrospective studyanalyzed risk factors of the patients with burn injuries who lived in ruralareas. BetweenJanuary 2000 and June 2011, 1145 patients were hospitalized in the Adana burn unit of Baskent Universityof whom 600 (52.5%) lived in rural areas and 545 (47.5%) lived in urban areas.The two groups were compared with respect to demographic characteristics, causeof burn injury, severity of burn injury, and length of hospital stay. Thetreatment methods used were recorded in the burn treatment registry. In this study, burns occurring in rural areas were deeper,larger, and caused more deaths than those occurring in urban areas, which maybe due to the characteristics of the rural population, including theunavailability of transportation to the burn units. Rural burns were more frequent and more severe than urbanburns, which demonstrate the importance of appropriate prevention directed atrural populations.Key words: Burn injury, rural area, urban area, prevention

Keywords

• Burn injury, rural area, urban area, prevention

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