Individual-level predictors of inpatient childhood burn injuries: a case–control study

BACKGROUND Burn injuries are considered one of the most preventable public health issue among children; however, are a cause of significant morbidity and mortality in Iran. The aim of this study was to assess individual-level predictors of severe burn injuries among children leading to hospitalization, in East Azerbaijan Province, in North-West of Iran. METHODS The study was conducted through a hospital based case-control design involving 281 burn victims and 273 hospital-based controls who were frequency matched on age, gender and urbanity. Both bivariate and multivariate methods were used to analyze the data. RESULTS Mean age of the participants was 40.5 months (95 % CI: 37-44) with the majority of burns occurring at ages between 2 months-13.9 years. It was demonstrated that with increase in the caregiver's age there was a decrease in the odds of burn injuries (OR = 0.94, 95 % CI: 0.92-0.97). According to the multivariate logistic regression there were independent factors associated with burn injuries including childhood ADHD (OR = 2.82, 95 % CI: 1.68 - 4.76), child's age (OR = 0.73, 95%CI: 0.67 - 0.80), flammability of clothing (OR = 1.60, 95 % CI: 1.12 - 2.28), daily length of watching television (OR = 1.31, 95 % CI: 1.06 - 1.61), playing outdoors (OR = 1.32, 95 % CI: 1.16 - 1.50) and increment in the economic status (OR = 1.37, 95 % CI: 1.18 - 1.60). CONCLUSION Major risk predictors of burn injuries among the Iranian population included childhood ADHD, child's age, watching television, playing outdoors, high economic status and flammable clothing.