The Horizon of Unintentional Injuries among Children in Low-Income Setting: An Overview from Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey

Introduction. The paper aims to explore the magnitude and distribution of unintentional injuries among Bangladeshi children (<18 years). Methodology. A cross sectional survey was conducted during 2003 (January to December) in 12 randomly selected districts and Dhaka Metropolitan City of Bangladesh. Nationally representative data were collected from 171 366 households comprising of 351 651 children of under 18 years. Information includes the number of deaths and illness at the household in the preceding year. Verbal autopsy and verbal diagnosis form was used to determine the cause of mortality and morbidity respectively. Results. There were 351651 children in the study, of which 5577 had one or more injuries in the past one year. Drowning and falls was the leading cause of injury mortality and morbidity in children over 1 year of age respectively. Incidence of unintentional injuries was significantly higher among boys (95% CI = −2157.8) than girls (95% CI = 968.7 − 1085.8) while rural children were the most vulnerable group. Home and its premises was the most common place for the injury incidence. Conclusion. The result of the study could be an insight to the policy makers to develop realistic and effective strategies to address the issue

Geographical variation of mortality from cardiovascular diseases. The Project 'Myocardial Infarction in mid-Sweden'

In this study, the geographical variation of the mortality rate in mid-Sweden was studied. Data on mortality from all causes and mortality from cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and non-cardiovascular diseases for men and women 45-74 years of age living in 76 communities in mid-Sweden were obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics. After age standardization, the rates for mortality from all causes and cardiovascular mortality were substantially higher in the Westernmost communities compared with those in the East, whereas for non-cardiovascular mortality there were no systematic differences. The county with the higher rate for IHD had a 60% higher rate for men aged 45-64 years and a 53% higher rate for women aged 45-64 years than the county with the lowest rate. The corresponding excess mortality rates from stroke were 73% for men aged 45-74 and 46% for women aged 45-74 years. The cause of this variation is not known. It is not due to the confounding effect of different age distributions in the communities, differences in the registration of causes of death, or differences in case fatality rate