Trends in Prevalent Injuries among Iranian Pilgrims in Hajj

Background: annually millions of muslims depart to saudi arabia for performing a religious pilgrimage called hajj. inthis ceremony, pilgrims face numerous health hazards and injuries such as pressing in overcrowding, sliding, burning, fallingdown, traffic accidents etc. the main purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of injuries in hajj periodacross 2004 to 2008.methods: this study was conducted on 253808 iranian pilgrims on five consecutive years of hajj ceremonies, from 2004 to2008. we used a report sheet with 13 types of injuries and 13 mechanisms of these injuries. spss v13.5 soft ware wasused for analyzing the data. anova and independent sample t – test was conducted, and relationships were consideredsignificant at p< 0.05.results: the most common injuries was tissue contusions and ruptures (about 76/10000), and tendon lesions (about62/10000). in addition, the most common mechanism of injuries was ankle sprain (69/10000) during the five consecutiveyears. the prevalence of all fractures was about 49/10000 and the proportion of burning with hot water or fire wasabout 40/10000. changes of all causes of the injuries were significant in this study (p< 0.05).conclusions: we have suggested some directions for preventing of injuries and related injuries in hajj, in this study.