Gender-based disparities in burn injuries, care and outcomes: A World Health Organization (WHO) Global Burn Registry cohort study

Abstract

BackgroundWe aimed to describe the gender-based disparities in burn injury patterns, care received, and mortality across national income levels. MethodsIn the WHO Global Burn Registry (GBR), we compared patient demographics, injury characteristics, care and outcomes by sex using Chi-square statistics. Logistic regression was used to identify the associations of patient sex with surgical treatment and in-hospital mortality. ResultsAmong 6431 burn patients (38 % female; 62 % male), females less frequently received surgical treatment during index hospitalization (49 % vs 56 %, p < 0.001), and more frequently died in-hospital (26 % vs 16 %, p < 0.001) than males. Odds of in in-hospital death was 2.16 (95 % CI: 1.73–2.71) times higher among females compared to males in middle-income countries. ConclusionsAcross national income levels, there appears to be important gender-based disparities among burn injury epidemiology, treatment received and outcomes that require redress. Multinational registries can be utilized to track and to evaluate initiatives to reduce gender disparities at national, regional and global levels.