Abstract
BackgroundViolence and Injuries are a significant global public health concern characterized by marked regional variation in incidence. Approximately five million people die from injuries each year, accounting 9% of all deaths worldwide. In Kenya, injuries are increasingly becoming a cause of hospital admissions and mortality where they account for 10% of all the deaths. The objective of this study was to determine the magnitude, demographic profile and pattern of fatal injuries in Nairobi.MethodsRetrospective review of death certificates from the Department of Civil Registration was done for deaths caused by injuries that occurred in Nairobi during the period, January to June 2014. Data was collected using a standardized form. Data entry, cleaning and analysis was done using Epi info version 7.0.ResultsA total of 11,443 records were reviewed. From this data, deaths resulting from injuries were 1,208 accounting for 10.6% of all recorded deaths. Majority of the deaths resulting from injuries occurred in persons aged 25 to 44 years (48.1%). Males accounted for 85% of all the injuries. The leading cause of injury was assault by blunt force at 30.5%, followed by road traffic injuries at 25.9% and fire arm injuries at 15%. Pre-hospital deaths accounted for 51.4% of all the deaths. Nineteen percent of the deaths resulting from injuries had autopsies performed on them.ConclusionOur study found that injuries are an important cause of fatality in Nairobi, accounting for one in ten deaths. There is need for multisectoral collaboration as some of the preventive measures that target the most prevalent injuries such as assault and road traffic injuries lie outside the health sector. There exists information gaps on the death certificates hence there is need to adequately capacity build both clinicians and death certifiers. There is also a need to revise the death certificates and to improve the pre-hospital care system for the injured persons.
Highlights
Violence and Injuries are a significant global public health concern characterized by marked regional variation in incidence
This study explores the use of Civil Registration data by use of death certificates to detail the fatal injury burden, a method that has not previously been used
The records review of death certificates was conducted at the Department of Civil Registration headquarters for deaths that had occurred in Nairobi County between January and June 2016
Summary
Violence and Injuries are a significant global public health concern characterized by marked regional variation in incidence. Five million people die from injuries each year, accounting 9% of all deaths worldwide. In Kenya, injuries are increasingly becoming a cause of hospital admissions and mortality where they account for 10% of all the deaths. It is estimated that violence and injuries account for 9% of all the global deaths, which is nearly 1.7 times the number of deaths resulting from HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria combined. Violence and Injuries result to considerable large number of hospital visits, hospital admissions and disabilities, and are a major cause of death. For every death related injury, there are a dozen more who get admitted, hundreds who visit the emergency department and a proportion of these will be left with a temporary or permanent disability [3]. Injuries impose a huge financial burden among communities, which is incurred in form of direct costs of medical treatment or indirect
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