Non-fatal Home Injuries among the Elderly in Tamil Nadu, India

Injuries are considered as an emerging public health problem in India. Globally every year, injuries kill more than 5 million people, and by 2020, injuries will be the third-leading cause of death and disability worldwide. The study aimed to assess the prevalence and characteristics of nonfatal home injuries among the elderly in Tamil Nadu.

A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted among 1139 elderly (60 years and above), sampled from three districts of Tamil Nadu, India. Probability proportional to size sampling technique was used for sampling; a pretested questionnaire was used to collect the data.

Prevalence of nonfatal home injuries among elderly within the past 1 year was 14.6% (12.5-16.7 at 95% confidence interval), (n = 1003), among those injured, 94.5% were unintentionally injured and 5.5% were of intentional nature. When classified according to the types of injuries, majority of them had fall injuries (6.7%) followed by minor domestic injuries (5.4%), animal-related injury (0.2%), burn injuries (1.1%), road traffic injury (0.4%), and suicide attempt (0.8%). Majority of the respondents were in the age group of young-old, 60-69 years of age (84%), and there was more number of males (55%) in the study.

The study reveals that nonfatal home injuries among elderly are an emerging public health problem, unintentional injuries contribute to the majority of the injuries, fall was the single largest contributor for all injuries among elderly.