Maximum ‘unintentional injuries’ due to road accidents,says UoP study

Head of School of Health Sciences Dr Anita Kar said the specific aim of the study was to determine the burden of unintentional injuries upon private and public medical services in terms of utilisation and to assess the burden of unintentional injuries on families in terms of absenteeism from school or employment or any productive activity and the direct cost of treatment.

India suffers from a scarcity of injury data and hence we decided to conduct a population-based study on the burden,pattern and risk factors of unintentional injuries in Pune,said Roxana Mirkazemi,a PhD student,who was guided by Kar in out the survey. “We surveyed 2,100 households across the city,” says Roxana. Of 430 reported cases of unintentional injuries,there were 17 reported cases of permanent disability corresponding to 3.9 per cent of total reported cases of injuries,giving a disability rate of 189 per 100,000 individuals per year. Twenty six cases of death were reported amongst the household members in five years.

Road injuries were the main reason for hospitalisation in 42 cases,says Kar. The average duration of hospitalisation was 11 days and out-of-pocket direct cost of treatment paid by the injured was on an average Rs 7,256. The average out-of-pocket cost of treatment in private hospitals was 11 times more than that in public hospitals. In 15 cases (8.1%),the injured lost their jobs permanently and in 199 (67.7%) cases the injured suffered from loss of productive work or school days as a result of the injury.

Road injuries were due to collision of two vehicles in 52.3 per cent cases. Amongst those injured,81.1 per cent were not using helmet on two-wheelers at the time of the injury. The mortality rate due to unintentional injuries is higher than the mortality rate of other well known infectious diseases like malaria (3/100,000) and tuberculosis (34.8/100,000) in India. Kar said while there are extensive national plans for the control of tuberculosis and malaria,no plans for injury control exist in the country.