Epidemiologic trend in elderly domestic injury

Document Type

Article

Department

General Surgery

Abstract

Background: The elderly constitute about 12% of the American population, with a projected increase of up to 25% in 2050. Elderly domestic injuries have been recognized as a major cause of morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study is to determine the 4-y national trend in elderly domestic injury, and we hypothesize that the home remains a significant source of injury.
Methods: Data on elderly patients ≥ 65 y was extracted from the National Trauma Data Bank's National Sample Project (NSP). Elderly patients with home injuries were compared with non-home injuries. Subsets of hospitalized patients were analyzed for trends in injury site over a 4 y period. Multivariate analysis was performed to determine the predictors of hospitalization and in-hospital mortality.
Results: A total of 98,288 patients, representing a weighed estimate of 472,456 elderly patients were analyzed. Forty-two percent of all injuries in the study population occurred at home, followed by motor vehicle crashes (MVC) at 25%. Home injuries as a proportion of annual injuries increased from 37% in 2003 to 40% in 2006. Majority (57%) were admitted to the floor and 14% to the intensive care unit (ICU). On multivariate analysis, African-Americans and Asians were less likely to be hospitalized (odds ratio (OR) 0.57 and 0.50, respectively, with females 47% less likely than males to die after hospitalization (P < 0.001).
Conclusions: Home injuries remain the most significant source of elderly hospitalizations after trauma. With a rapidly growing elderly population, there is a need to recognize this specific location of injury and create directed preventive measures to avert elderly domestic injuries

Comments

This work was published before the author joined Aga Khan University

Publication (Name of Journal)

The Journal of surgical research

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