Burn Patterns in a Rural Community of Bangladesh: Findings from Surveillance Data of January to June 2015

Background: Burn is a major cause of injury morbidity in Bangladesh with prevalence of 9.89/1000 population in 2016. This study aims to describe distribution and existing patterns of burns in a rural community where an active community-based injury surveillance had been ongoing since 2005.
Methods: We analyzed surveillance data of January-June 2015 descriptively and compared burn events between genders and age-groups using z-test, two-sample t-test, Fisher’s exact test, Wilcoxon rank sum tests, ANOVA, and Kruskal-Wallis test with 95% CI.
Results: There were 114 burns yielding burn-rate of 1.5/1000 population/year, lower than in 2016 (p<0.01), with no mortality, mainly caused by hot-liquids (46%). Most burns occurred in kitchens (59%) and while playing near fire (41%). Females had higher rates (1.8/1000), higher median (IQR) age at burn (28.4, 4.6-44.4), longer duration of illness (13.4 days, SD 8), and more hot-liquid burns (56%) than males (p<0.05 for all). Oneto-four-year-olds had highest rate (5.1/1000) (p<0.01) and infants suffered longer (22.3 days, SD 15.0). Prior to burns, for all children <10 years, playing near fire was most common activity (78.8%, 41/52), but for ≥10 years, these were cooking for females (63.8%, 30/47) and workplaces for males (35.7%, 5/14).
Conclusion: Reported burn-rate was low, high-risk groups matched previous findings, and longer sufferings in females might be from gender-biased health-seeking behaviour. Activities prior to burns matched behaviors typical for high-risk groups. We recommend a country-wide study to identify activities prior to burn in high-risk groups and to consider those by policy makers for designing targeted interventions.