"Burn repeaters" and injury control

The purposes of this study were (1) to identify the percentage of patients with burns or intergenerational family members who have had previous burn injuries that required hospitalization and (2) to assess the need for an inpatient burn prevention program for patients and families. This study revealed an increase from 8% to 19% "burn repeaters," with a yearly average of 13% in a 5-year census and a 20.1% etiologic fraction related to the marker of increased risk (previous burn injury). These results strongly substantiate the necessity for an inpatient prevention program for patients and families to promote injury control by reduction of subsequent burn injury and thus break the burn injury cycle.