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Risk factors for burns in children: crowding, poverty, and poor maternal education
J Delgado1, M E Ramírez-Cardich, R H Gilman
1Benefit Association PRISMA (Projects in Informatics, Medicine, Health and Agriculture), Lima, Peru.
Objective:
To characterize the presentation of burns in children and risk factors associated with their occurrence in a developing country as a basis for future prevention programs.
Design:
Case-control study.
Setting:
Burn unit of the National Institute of Child Health (Instituto Nacional de Salud del Niño) in Lima, Peru.
Methods:
A questionnaire was administered to all consenting guardians of children admitted to the burns (cases) and general medicine (controls) units during a period of 14 months. Guardians of patients were questioned regarding etiology of the injury, demographic and socioeconomic data.
Results:
740 cases and controls were enrolled. Altogether 77.5% of the cases burns occurred in the patient's home, with 67.8% in the kitchen; 74% were due to scalding. Most involved children younger than 5 years. Lack of water supply (odds ratio (OR) 5.2, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.1 to 1 2.3), low income (OR 2.8, 95% CI 2.0 to 3.9), and crowding (OR 2.5, 95%CI 1.7 to 3.6) were associated with an increased risk. The presence of a living room (OR 0.6, 95% CI 0.4 to 0.8) and better maternal education (OR 0.6, 95% CI 0.5 to 0.9) were protective factors.
Conclusions:
To prevent burns interventions should be directed to low socioeconomic status groups; these interventions should be designed accordingly to local risk factors.