Accidents involving adults in the home environment in Nairobi, Kenya

Hospital records covering the period between 1986 and 1990 obtained from 10 major city hospitals and 12 City Council Health clinics were reviewed and information on age, sex, occupation, type and cause of injury and its management was extracted. Also extracted was information on outcome of treatment. This paper deals only with information related to persons aged 18 years and above. The results show that out of 9648 hospital records reviewed, 48% were adult cases, with a male to female ratio of 1.5:1. Age group 18-35 years constituted more than 70% of all the cases, declining markedly with increasing age. The slums and low income group residential areas contributed 63% of the cases. The main types of injuries attended to were open wounds (34%), burns (13%), swellings (7%), lacerations and bruises (6%), bites and limb injuries (5%), respectively. The results show that there is a clear case for a community operational research project with a strong accident prevention component.