Burn injuries in the older population and understanding the common causes to influence accident prevention

The over 65 years old are a fast growing population leading to a future increase in patients. Burn injuries can have a serious effect on a patient's health, requiring longer hospital stays and affecting their mortality. The regional burns unit at Pinderfields General Hospital cares for all patients with burn injuries in the Yorkshire and Humber region in the United Kingdom. The aim of this study was to understand the common causes of burn injury in the elderly population and to provide scope on what actions need to be carried out to influence accident prevention in the future.

In this study, patients were aged 65 years or older and had to have been admitted for a minimum of one night to the regional burns unit at Yorkshire, England from January 2012. The data was collected from the International Burn Injury Database (iBID), which included a total number of 5091 patients. After the inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied there were a total number of 442 patients over 65 years old. The data was analysed using descriptive analysis.

13.0% of all patients admitted with a burn injury were over 65 years old. In the over 65 years old, 31.2% of burn injuries were most common during the activity of food preparation. Out of all the burn injuries within food preparation 75.4% were due to a scald injury. Additionally, 42.3% of scald burns from food preparation were due to hot fluid spills from a kettle or saucepan, rising to 73.1% after including burns from cups of tea and coffee. 21.2% of scalds from food preparation were caused by cooking with hot oil.

The main cause of burn injuries in the elderly of Yorkshire and Humber was food preparation. The majority of the food preparation burn injuries were a scald burn due to the handling of hot fluids, either from a saucepan or a kettle. A prevention strategy aiming to make people aware of this finding can help reduce burn injuries in the over 65 years old age group.