EPIDEMIOLOGICAL PATTERN OF NON-FATAL INJURIES IN IRAN

Objectives: to present the incidence rate and distribution of non-fatal injuries in iran. methodology: a one- year study was carried out in all 28 provinces of iran in 2002-3. overall, 53,6624 individuals (1,11626 households) from all provinces of the country were randomly selected for the study. in each province about 2000 households in urban and 2000 families in rural areas were included in the study. the guardians or heads of the households were interviewed by using a questionnaire that included information about any accidental injuries taken medical cares within the year prior to the date of data collection and some other demographic information. results: it is estimated that more than 9.2 million injuries with about 8286 deaths and 74379 hospitalizations occurred in iran each year. the incidence rate of all types of non-fatal injuries was (444.3 per 100,000). the top three causes of non-fatal injuries were transport accidents (237 per 100,000), falls (106.2 per 100,000) and struck by thrown, projected of falling object (69.8 per 100,000). the non-fatal injuries were more common among males than females (8039.6 vs. 2021.7 per 100,000) and nearly equivalent among residence of urban areas compared to those from rural areas (5024.1 vs. 5075.5 per 100,000). conclusion: in iran injuries are one of the main leading causes of diseases and hospital admissions in both rural and urban areas, and this figure for transport accidents is quite high in the world.