Occupational injuries admitted to the emergency department

Abstract

Objective: To categorise the characteristics, causes and rates of occupational injuries referred to the Emergency Department of a Turkish hospital.

Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted at a university-based hospital in Edirne, Turkey, from January 1, 2010 to May 1, 2011. Parameters evaluated included: gender, age, occurrence mechanism, injury type, injury localisation, sector, season, day of week, injury hours, the types of health insurance, working experience, educational level and outcome. SPSS 15 was used for statistical analysis.

Results: A total of 552 patients sustained occupational injuries. The male-to-female ratio was 11.54:1.The mean age of the patients was 36.03 +/- 11.77 years. The injury rate was the highest in the 18-29 age group (n = 418; 75.7%). Most cases occurred in the summers (n = 172; 31.2%). The largest number of injuries occurred on weekdays (n = 184; 33.3%). Most injuries occurred between 8AM and 4PM (n = 343; 62.1%).The construction industry had the highest injury rate (n = 222; 40.2%). The most common mechanism of injuries was penetrating sharp-object injury (n = 224; 40.6%). The most common type of injury in the general injury group was multiple-type (n = 162; 29.4%). Of the total, 379 (71.7%) patients were discharged after treatment in the Emergency Department. Five patients died during the study period.

Conclusion: Further studies in the Emergency Department may contribute to the prevention of occupational injuries in the future.