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Too serious to ignore: The epidemiologic and economic burden of home injuries in the Southwest Region of Cameroon—A community-based study
BACKGROUND: Home injuries are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in high-income countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, including Cameroon, many people live in unplanned settlements with poorly constructed houses, predisposing them to home injuries. However, little is known about the epidemiolo...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9498948/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36136996 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274686 |
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author | Cole, Eunice Oben Bessem Christie, S. Ariane Oke, Rasheedat Motwani, Girish Dickson, Drusia Chendjou, William Mbianyor, Mbiarikai Dicker, Rochelle Juillard, Catherine Chichom-Mefire, Alain |
author_facet | Cole, Eunice Oben Bessem Christie, S. Ariane Oke, Rasheedat Motwani, Girish Dickson, Drusia Chendjou, William Mbianyor, Mbiarikai Dicker, Rochelle Juillard, Catherine Chichom-Mefire, Alain |
author_sort | Cole, Eunice Oben Bessem |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Home injuries are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in high-income countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, including Cameroon, many people live in unplanned settlements with poorly constructed houses, predisposing them to home injuries. However, little is known about the epidemiology and care-seeking behaviors of the domestically injured. In this study, our objective was to determine the epidemiology and care-seeking behaviors of home injuries in the Southwest Region of Cameroon. METHODS: A sub-analyses of a larger descriptive cross-sectional community-based study on injury epidemiology in the preceding 12 months was conducted. Sampling was done using three-stage cluster sampling technique. Differences between groups were evaluated using Chi-squared and Adjusted Wald tests. RESULTS: Of 8065 participants, 157 suffered home injuries giving an incidence of 19.6 (16.8–23.0 95% CI) cases per 1000-person years. Home injuries comprised 31.2% of all 503 injuries and affected more females (60.8%) and younger individuals (mean age (SE) 25.1 years (2.0)) than non-home injuries. The most common activity and mechanism of home injury was leisure/play (51%) and falls (37.9%) respectively. Amongst those with home injuries, 37.6% did not seek care from any care provider (versus 25.0% of non-home injuries, p = 0.004) and were more likely to seek treatment within the family or at home (p = 0.008) or at church (p = 0.010). Those with home injuries experienced a median of 14 disability days and 22.9% of families faced difficulties affording basic expenses (p = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Home injuries comprise about a third of the Southwest Region of Cameroon’s burden of injury and likely have a profound socioeconomic impact. Though these injuries cause severe disabilities, a large proportion of victims do not seek care from providers. Prevention efforts should address the design of homes and victims of home injury should be encouraged to utilize formal care services. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9498948 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-94989482022-09-23 Too serious to ignore: The epidemiologic and economic burden of home injuries in the Southwest Region of Cameroon—A community-based study Cole, Eunice Oben Bessem Christie, S. Ariane Oke, Rasheedat Motwani, Girish Dickson, Drusia Chendjou, William Mbianyor, Mbiarikai Dicker, Rochelle Juillard, Catherine Chichom-Mefire, Alain PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Home injuries are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in high-income countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, including Cameroon, many people live in unplanned settlements with poorly constructed houses, predisposing them to home injuries. However, little is known about the epidemiology and care-seeking behaviors of the domestically injured. In this study, our objective was to determine the epidemiology and care-seeking behaviors of home injuries in the Southwest Region of Cameroon. METHODS: A sub-analyses of a larger descriptive cross-sectional community-based study on injury epidemiology in the preceding 12 months was conducted. Sampling was done using three-stage cluster sampling technique. Differences between groups were evaluated using Chi-squared and Adjusted Wald tests. RESULTS: Of 8065 participants, 157 suffered home injuries giving an incidence of 19.6 (16.8–23.0 95% CI) cases per 1000-person years. Home injuries comprised 31.2% of all 503 injuries and affected more females (60.8%) and younger individuals (mean age (SE) 25.1 years (2.0)) than non-home injuries. The most common activity and mechanism of home injury was leisure/play (51%) and falls (37.9%) respectively. Amongst those with home injuries, 37.6% did not seek care from any care provider (versus 25.0% of non-home injuries, p = 0.004) and were more likely to seek treatment within the family or at home (p = 0.008) or at church (p = 0.010). Those with home injuries experienced a median of 14 disability days and 22.9% of families faced difficulties affording basic expenses (p = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Home injuries comprise about a third of the Southwest Region of Cameroon’s burden of injury and likely have a profound socioeconomic impact. Though these injuries cause severe disabilities, a large proportion of victims do not seek care from providers. Prevention efforts should address the design of homes and victims of home injury should be encouraged to utilize formal care services. Public Library of Science 2022-09-22 /pmc/articles/PMC9498948/ /pubmed/36136996 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274686 Text en © 2022 Cole et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Cole, Eunice Oben Bessem Christie, S. Ariane Oke, Rasheedat Motwani, Girish Dickson, Drusia Chendjou, William Mbianyor, Mbiarikai Dicker, Rochelle Juillard, Catherine Chichom-Mefire, Alain Too serious to ignore: The epidemiologic and economic burden of home injuries in the Southwest Region of Cameroon—A community-based study |
title | Too serious to ignore: The epidemiologic and economic burden of home injuries in the Southwest Region of Cameroon—A community-based study |
title_full | Too serious to ignore: The epidemiologic and economic burden of home injuries in the Southwest Region of Cameroon—A community-based study |
title_fullStr | Too serious to ignore: The epidemiologic and economic burden of home injuries in the Southwest Region of Cameroon—A community-based study |
title_full_unstemmed | Too serious to ignore: The epidemiologic and economic burden of home injuries in the Southwest Region of Cameroon—A community-based study |
title_short | Too serious to ignore: The epidemiologic and economic burden of home injuries in the Southwest Region of Cameroon—A community-based study |
title_sort | too serious to ignore: the epidemiologic and economic burden of home injuries in the southwest region of cameroon—a community-based study |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9498948/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36136996 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274686 |
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