TY - JOUR
T1 - The epidemiology of injury in the Republic of Lithuania
AU - Lunevicius, Raimundas
AU - Stevens, Kent A.
AU - Puvanachandra, Prasanthi
AU - Hyder, Adnan Ali
PY - 2010/6
Y1 - 2010/6
N2 - Aims: The overall goal of this paper is to highlight the epidemiology of injury in Lithuania between 1998 and 2006. Such a situation analysis will inform the important dialogue happening in Lithuania with respect to renewal of the trauma programme and help to profile the burden of injury in the country. Methods: Review of the literature, and secondary analysis of data from the Lithuanian Health Information Center and the European Detailed Mortality database. Results: Sixteen articles were identified as population-based studies; only incidence of burn injuries was reported as 240 per 100,000 per year. According to our analysis, the overall incidence of injury increased from 76 cases per 1,000 individuals in 1998 to 121 cases per 1,000 individuals in 2006. The total number of deaths from external causes remained similar with an average of 5,301 per year, as did the age-standardized mortality rates of 152 in 1998 and 150 per 100,000 in 2006. The mortality rate in men was four times higher than in women. Suicide was the most frequent cause of death (34% in 2006); while road traffic injuries were the second most frequent accounting for 17—19% of deaths. There were 429 deaths due to exposure to natural cold in 2006, which constituted 8% of all deaths due to injury. Conclusions: Injury incidence and mortality from external causes in Lithuania has not declined over an eight year time frame. New efforts should be launched in the health sector to address this major cause of deaths.
AB - Aims: The overall goal of this paper is to highlight the epidemiology of injury in Lithuania between 1998 and 2006. Such a situation analysis will inform the important dialogue happening in Lithuania with respect to renewal of the trauma programme and help to profile the burden of injury in the country. Methods: Review of the literature, and secondary analysis of data from the Lithuanian Health Information Center and the European Detailed Mortality database. Results: Sixteen articles were identified as population-based studies; only incidence of burn injuries was reported as 240 per 100,000 per year. According to our analysis, the overall incidence of injury increased from 76 cases per 1,000 individuals in 1998 to 121 cases per 1,000 individuals in 2006. The total number of deaths from external causes remained similar with an average of 5,301 per year, as did the age-standardized mortality rates of 152 in 1998 and 150 per 100,000 in 2006. The mortality rate in men was four times higher than in women. Suicide was the most frequent cause of death (34% in 2006); while road traffic injuries were the second most frequent accounting for 17—19% of deaths. There were 429 deaths due to exposure to natural cold in 2006, which constituted 8% of all deaths due to injury. Conclusions: Injury incidence and mortality from external causes in Lithuania has not declined over an eight year time frame. New efforts should be launched in the health sector to address this major cause of deaths.
KW - External causes
KW - Lithuania
KW - incidence
KW - injury
KW - mortality
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U2 - 10.1177/1403494809352102
DO - 10.1177/1403494809352102
M3 - Article
C2 - 19880662
AN - SCOPUS:77953470258
SN - 1403-4948
VL - 38
SP - 386
EP - 394
JO - Scandinavian journal of public health
JF - Scandinavian journal of public health
IS - 4
ER -