1.Association of COVID-19 'circuit breaker' with higher rates of elderly trauma admissions.
Yee Har LIEW ; Zhenghong LIU ; Mian Jie LIM ; Pei Leng CHONG ; Norhayati Bte Mohamed JAINODIN ; Teng Teng PEH ; Jing Jing CHAN ; Sachin MATHUR ; Jeremy Choon Peng WEE
Singapore medical journal 2025;66(2):91-96
INTRODUCTION:
In December 2019, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) virus emerged and caused a worldwide pandemic, leading to measures being imposed by many countries to reduce its transmission. Singapore implemented the 'circuit breaker', which restricted all movements except for access to necessities and healthcare services. We aimed to investigate the impact of lockdown measures on the pattern of trauma and its effects.
METHODS:
An observational, retrospective, single-centre descriptive study was conducted using the trauma registry in Singapore General Hospital. It included patients above 18 years old who presented to the emergency department with trauma and were subsequently admitted. Patients admitted from 1 February 2020 to 31 July 2020 and those admitted during the same timeframe in 2019 were studied. Subgroup analyses were performed for patients aged ≥65 years and those <65 years.
RESULTS:
A total of 1,037 patients were included for analysis. A 17.6% increase in trauma presentations was seen from 2019 to 2020. Patients aged ≥65 years accounted for the rise in admissions. The predominant mechanism of injury was falls at home for older patients and vehicular accidents in patients <65 years. There were no significant differences in injury severity score, intensive care/high-dependency unit admission rates, length of stay, mortality rate, and subsequent need for inpatient rehabilitation.
CONCLUSION
Our study provided information on differences in trauma presentations before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further studies are required to better inform on additional precautionary measures needed to reduce trauma and improve safety during future lockdowns and pandemics.
Humans
;
COVID-19/prevention & control*
;
Aged
;
Retrospective Studies
;
Singapore/epidemiology*
;
Male
;
Female
;
Wounds and Injuries/epidemiology*
;
Aged, 80 and over
;
Middle Aged
;
SARS-CoV-2
;
Hospitalization/statistics & numerical data*
;
Adult
;
Emergency Service, Hospital/statistics & numerical data*
;
Registries
;
Accidental Falls/statistics & numerical data*
;
Pandemics
;
Patient Admission/statistics & numerical data*
;
Length of Stay
;
Accidents, Traffic/statistics & numerical data*
2.Risk assessment tools for 0-6 years old children unintentional injuries: A systematic literature analysis.
Yang YUAN ; Li LI ; Guoqing HU
Journal of Central South University(Medical Sciences) 2025;50(1):130-142
OBJECTIVES:
Injuries are the leading cause of death among children and adolescents. Although numerous risk assessment tools for unintentional injuries in children have been developed and published both domestically and internationally, there is currently no global consensus on standardized use. This study aims to systematically characterize existing unintentional injury risk assessment tools for children aged 0-6 years, with the goal of informing scientific tool selection and optimization.
METHODS:
Relevant literature published up to January 2025 was retrieved from CNKI, Wanfang, PubMed, and Web of Science. An information extraction form was developed to gather data on the basic features of each assessment tool, assessment format, scoring methods and criteria, dimensions assessed, reliability and validity, and types of unintentional injuries covered.
RESULTS:
A total of 50 risk assessment tools for unintentional injuries among children aged 0-6 years were included. Among them, 35 tools assessed two or more types of unintentional injuries. Regarding assessment format, 38 tools relied on caregiver self-report, 2 on investigator interviews, 3 on direct observation by investigators, and 7 used multiple methods. The tools covered four major dimensions: knowledge, attitude, behavior, and environment. Eleven tools covered 3 dimensions, while only one tool addressed all 4. Nineteen tools provided clear scoring methods, 14 included criteria for risk determination, and only 11 had both scoring methods and risk criteria. Twenty-eight tools lacked both. Twenty-two tools had been evaluated for reliability and/or validity. Among the 25 English-language tools, only 3 had been translated into Chinese.
CONCLUSIONS
Currently, no existing tool comprehensively assesses all major types of unintentional injuries for children under six years of age. It is recommended that practitioners select appropriate tools based on specific needs. In addition, improvements should be pursued, such as translating and validating English-language tools, developing quantitative scoring methods and criteria for tools tailored to Chinese children for important but underrepresented injury types (e.g., road traffic injuries, drowning).
Humans
;
Infant
;
Child, Preschool
;
Child
;
Risk Assessment/methods*
;
Accidental Injuries/prevention & control*
;
Infant, Newborn
;
Wounds and Injuries/epidemiology*
;
Reproducibility of Results
3.Global road traffic injury statistics: Challenges, mechanisms and solutions.
Fang-Rong CHANG ; He-Lai HUANG ; David C SCHWEBEL ; Alan H S CHAN ; Guo-Qing HU
Chinese Journal of Traumatology 2020;23(4):216-218
High-quality data are the foundation to monitor the progress and evaluate the effects of road traffic injury prevention measures. Unfortunately, official road traffic injury statistics delivered by governments worldwide, are often believed somewhat unreliable and invalid. We summarized the reported problems concerning the road traffic injury statistics through systematically searching and reviewing the literature. The problems include absence of regular data, under-reporting, low specificity, distorted cause spectrum of road traffic injury, inconsistency, inaccessibility, and delay of data release. We also explored the mechanisms behind the problematic data and proposed the solutions to the addressed challenges for road traffic statistics.
Accidental Injuries
;
epidemiology
;
prevention & control
;
Accidents, Traffic
;
prevention & control
;
statistics & numerical data
;
Global Health
;
Humans
4.Epidemiologic study of traffic crash mortality among motorcycle users in Iran (2011-2017).
Abdolrazagh BARZEGAR ; Masoud GHADIPASHA ; Mehdi FOROUZESH ; Samira VALIYARI ; Ali KHADEMI
Chinese Journal of Traumatology 2020;23(4):219-223
PURPOSE:
Motorcycle accident is a major cause of road traffic injuries and the motorcyclists are considered as vulnerable road users. The present study aimed to determine the epidemiological characteristics of fatal motorcycle crashes in Iran.
METHODS:
In this cross-sectional study, a total of 28,356 motorcycle traffic fatalities registered in the Legal Medicine Organization of Iran were analyzed during the period between March 2011 and March 2017. The examined variables included demographic characteristics, helmet use, crash mechanisms, crash location, position state, type of counterpart vehicle, cause of death and place of death. In the study, road traffic mortalities involving drivers and/or passenger of motorcycles were included. Cases or events registered without these conditions were excluded from the study. To analyse the data, SPSS statistics 25 and GraphPad Prism 8 softwares were used.
RESULTS:
Of the 122,682 fatal traffic injury cases, 28,356 (23.1%) were motorcycle users, of whom 95.3% were male and 4.7% were female. Most of the motorcycle fatalities belonged to the age group of 18-24 years (29.1%). Head trauma was the major cause of death (59.0%). Also, the overall proportion of safety helmet use among motorcycle crash victims was estimated at 37.4%. Most of the road traffic crash cases (46.8%) happened out of city and half of people (49.9%) died in hospital. About 77.4% of the victims were motorcycle riders and 21.1% were pillion passengers. The highest rate of mortality belonged to the self-employed (38.4%) and then workers (21.8%) and students (10.2%). In addition, most fatalities occurred in people with low education (77.5%) and the least occurred in university graduates (5.5%). Among 31 provinces of Iran, Fars had the highest (9.3%) occurrence rate and Kohgiluyeh and Buyer-Ahmad had the lowest (0.5%). Most of the crash mechanisms were due to motorcycle-vehicle crashes (80.2%), followed by rollover (9.8%).
CONCLUSION
Comprehensive public education and special rules are needed to reduce the rate of deaths in motorcycle crashes.
Accidental Injuries
;
epidemiology
;
mortality
;
prevention & control
;
Accidents, Traffic
;
mortality
;
prevention & control
;
statistics & numerical data
;
Adolescent
;
Adult
;
Child
;
Cross-Sectional Studies
;
Educational Status
;
Female
;
Head Protective Devices
;
statistics & numerical data
;
Health Education
;
Humans
;
Iran
;
epidemiology
;
Male
;
Middle Aged
;
Motorcycles
;
Registries
;
Young Adult
5.Analysis of risk factors contributing to road traffic accidents in a tertiary care hospital. A hospital based cross-sectional study.
Sandip KUMAR ; MAHIMA ; Dhiraj Kumar SRIVASTAVA ; Pradip KHARYA ; Neha SACHAN ; K KIRAN
Chinese Journal of Traumatology 2020;23(3):159-162
PURPOSE:
Road traffic accidents (RTAs) are a public health issue and cost a lot to individuals, families, communities and nations. Trauma care systems in India are at a nascent stage of development. There is gross disparity between trauma services available in various parts of the country. Rural area in India has inefficient services for trauma care, due to the varied topography, financial constraints, and lack of appropriate health infrastructure. The present study is to study the trends of occurrence of RTA cases by month, week and time of accident occurrence as well as to research the types of vehicle involved in accidents and other various risk factors related to them.
METHODS:
During 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2017, a hospital-based and cross-sectional study of RTA victims was conducted. The patients were admitted in emergency department of Uttar Pradesh University of Medical Sciences, Saifai, Etawah, when stabilized, they were shifted to the orthopaedics and surgery ward.
RESULTS:
In the study, 654 road accident victims were included, of which the majority were males (77.5%) and the most of them belonged to rural (67%). RTA victims according to the month of occurrence majority were found in January (12.5%) and evening was time of a day with maximum accidents (32.1%). Mortality cases of RTA victims based on type of road user and it shows decreasing trend of mortality of motorcyclists (54.2%) followed by pedestrian (25.1%).
CONCLUSION
There should be control over people driving vehicles under the influence of alcohol and drivers over-speeding and rash driving on urban roads as well as rural village roads.
Accidental Injuries
;
epidemiology
;
mortality
;
prevention & control
;
Accidents, Traffic
;
prevention & control
;
statistics & numerical data
;
Adolescent
;
Adult
;
Automobile Driving
;
Cross-Sectional Studies
;
Emergency Service, Hospital
;
statistics & numerical data
;
Female
;
Humans
;
Male
;
Middle Aged
;
Risk Factors
;
Seasons
;
Tertiary Care Centers
;
statistics & numerical data
;
Time
;
Young Adult
6.Experts' perspectives on the application of public-private partnership policy in prevention of road traffic injuries.
Saber AZAMI-AGHDASH ; Homayoun SADEGHI-BAZARGANI ; Mohammad SAADATI ; Mohammad MOHSENI ; Hojatolah GHARAEE
Chinese Journal of Traumatology 2020;23(3):152-158
PURPOSE:
Successful application experiences on public-private partnership (PPP) in different countries, suggest that PPP could be an option in road traffic injury (RTI) prevention. The present study aims at investigating the applicability of PPP policy in RTI prevention in Iran based on the experts' perspectives.
METHODS:
This is a qualitative study with grounded theory approach which has been conducted in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Iran in 2018. The participants were 22 experts in the field of RTIs selected using purposive sampling method. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews and analyzed with content-analysis method.
RESULTS:
The results were classified under 5 main themes (applicability, scopes and services, challenges, advantages, and strategies) for applying PPP policy and 37 sub-themes. Due to the prevalence of RTIs, the present challenges in public sector, existence of qualified private sector, and successful experiences in other areas, there are opportunities for private sector partnership in prevention of RTIs. Private sector could participate in different scopes and services regarding RTI prevention, including road construction and maintenance, maintenance and provision of vehicles safety and public education. The main challenges including legislation issues, ambiguities in collaboration, political and organizational unsustainability, government's financial hardship and lack of experienced experts in the field of RTI. However, there are significant advantages including high efficiency in program implementation, covering the weaknesses of public sector, effective and efficient management on application of PPP in RTI prevention. The strategies include identifying and prioritizing the assignable activities, identifying the qualified private sector, developing PPP policies and legal frameworks, creating a common language between public and private parties, trying to meet the expectations of the private sector by public sector, developing a comprehensive and sound contract, and cultivating public culture to accept private sector in the field of RTI prevention.
CONCLUSION
This study sought to determine whether PPP could be used as strategy to reduce the burden of RTIs in Iran. But it requires a lot of preliminary studies to provide the context and conditions for applying this policy.
Accidental Injuries
;
prevention & control
;
Accidents, Traffic
;
prevention & control
;
Adult
;
Expert Testimony
;
Female
;
Humans
;
Iran
;
Male
;
Middle Aged
;
Public-Private Sector Partnerships
;
organization & administration
;
Qualitative Research
7.Trend of Mortality Rate and Injury Burden of Transport Accidents, Suicides, and Falls.
Ki Sook KIM ; Soon Duck KIM ; Sang Hee LEE
Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health 2012;45(1):8-13
OBJECTIVES: Recently injury has become a major world-wide health problem. But studies in Korea about injuries were very few. Thus, this study was conducted to analyze the trend of major injuries from 1991 to 2006 and to provide basic data for preventing injuries. METHODS: This study was based on the National Statistical Office data from 1991 to 2006 and calculated to estimate the burden of major injuries by using the standard expected years of life lost (SEYLL) and total lost earnings equation. RESULTS: For transport accidents, mortality, SEYLL and total lost earnings were increased from 1991 to 1996 and decreased from 2000 to 2006. On the other hand, for suicides, these were increased gradually. Since 2003, falls were included in ten leading causes of death. This study showed that injury causes major social and economical losses. CONCLUSIONS: We could reduce injury related premature death through active interest in injury prevention program.
Accident Prevention
;
Accidental Falls/mortality/statistics & numerical data
;
Accidents/*mortality/*statistics & numerical data
;
Accidents, Traffic/mortality/statistics & numerical data
;
Adolescent
;
Adult
;
Age Distribution
;
Aged
;
Aged, 80 and over
;
Cause of Death/trends
;
Child
;
Female
;
Humans
;
Korea/epidemiology
;
Male
;
Middle Aged
;
Mortality/*trends
;
Sex Distribution
;
Suicide/trends
;
Wounds and Injuries/*epidemiology
;
Young Adult
8.A cross-sectional study on injuries in residents from the countryside of Huanghe Delta rural areas.
Zhi-Hua LI ; Zhong-Tang ZHAO ; Qi-Gui BO ; Yong-Sheng CHANG ; Xue-Ting XU ; Shou-Dong CHEN ; Xiao-Jun BO
Chinese Journal of Epidemiology 2004;25(8):680-683
OBJECTIVETo study the incidence of injuries among residents living in the countryside of Huanghe delta area.
METHODSA household questionnaire survey was conducted to 15 276 residents in 20 villages of Dongying municipality of Shandong province with a stratified-cluster sampling on their injuries from March 1, 2002 to February 28, 2003. Data were analyzed with Excel 2000 and SPSS 11.0 software.
RESULTSThe crude incidence of injuries was 5.90% in total, and the standardized incidence was 5.93%. It was higher in men (7.79%) than in women (4.03%). There were 19 deaths with 20 cripples. The standardized death rate was 122.56 per 100 000 with leading causes of injuries was blunt or by sharp articles (24.61%), traffic accident (24.17%), falls (22.62%) and animal bites (13.08%). Peak incidence of age group was high in 25 - 54 age group and 0 - 4 age group (> 6.0%). 267 cases (29.60%) inpatients had had about 15.89 days hospitalization for each case. Rest of each case with injury had 19.20 days of rest. Direct economic loss for treatment would cost 904.85 RMB Yuan and 10.15 days with care takers and 221.88 RMB for other cost. The potential years of life lost was 24 years, the working years of life lost was 19.6 year, the valued years of life lost was 8.7 year, and the standardized period expected years of life lost was 31.73 year.
CONCLUSIONInjury was common and frequently occurred among residents in the countryside of rural Huanghe delta areas, that seriously endangered the health care systems and burden on families.
Accidental Falls ; economics ; prevention & control ; statistics & numerical data ; Accidents, Traffic ; economics ; prevention & control ; statistics & numerical data ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Bites and Stings ; epidemiology ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; China ; epidemiology ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Infant ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Sampling Studies ; Suicide ; statistics & numerical data ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Wounds and Injuries ; economics ; epidemiology ; prevention & control

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