Regional Differences in Inpatient Adult Burn Etiology Across the United States

Despite known regional variation in access to specialized burn centers, the differences in burn injury patterns across the United States have not been well described. We investigated the geographic variation in burn injury etiology across the United States. A retrospective cohort study of burn injury was conducted with Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project-National Inpatient Sample (HCUP-NIS) data from 2017 to 2020. ICD-10-CM codes were used to identify patients with burn injuries and etiology of injury. Demographics, including median household income quartile across regions, were also identified. The proportion of patients who sustained chemical burns (29.9 people per million population) and electrical burns (29.8 people per million population) was significantly higher in the South compared to other regions in the United States (at 4.7% and 4.8% of all inpatient burn admissions, respectively), despite the region's relative scarcity of burn centers. The South also had the highest proportion of self-pay patients, at 15.8%, compared to other regions, while also having the highest proportion of lower-income patients. These differences have implications for policy decisions concerning resource allocation.