Intentional and non-intentional burn related deaths: a comparative study of socio-demographic profile

This is a retrospective study of 1689 consecutive admissions of burn deaths to the mortuary over a period of 5 years. The socio-demographic data was collected using special Performa and interviewing the family members, relatives, neighbours and from police reports. Depending on the presence or absence of intentional intent, cases were divided into two groups and compared with regard to their socio-demographic profile. Both groups did not differ significantly with regard to age, sex and educational status. The cases with intentional deaths came from nuclear family, unmarried, student, low socio-economic status, had more stressful life events and suffered larger burns injuries compared with those who experienced non-intentional deaths. The majority of the cases were below the age of 35, unemployed and females outnumbered males in both the groups.