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. 2019 Jan 9;8(1):7.
doi: 10.1186/s13584-018-0278-0.

The epidemiology of wrist and hand injury in two hospitals in Jerusalem: substantial differences between population subgroups

Shai Luria  1 , Daniel Talmud  2 , Ido Volk  2 , Meir Liebergall  2 , Ronit Calderon-Margalit  3
Affiliations

The epidemiology of wrist and hand injury in two hospitals in Jerusalem: substantial differences between population subgroups

Shai Luria et al. Isr J Health Policy Res. .

Abstract

Background: Wrist and hand injuries are common and constitute a major economic burden. General injury prevention programs have failed to demonstrate a decrease in injury rates. We hypothesized that there are differences in injury patterns in culturally diverse subpopulations of a metropolitan area treated within the same medical system, which may partly explain the difficulties associated with injury prevention.

Methods: We conducted a survey of patients admitted to emergency departments of two hospitals in Jerusalem for wrist and hand injuries during a 3 month period. Patients were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding demographic data, injury type and mechanism. Injury type and mechanism were then compared for age, gender, level of education and degree of religiosity.

Results: The questionnaire was completed by 799 patients (response rate 62%; 75% male; average age 27). Thirty-one percent reported they were injured at work, 33% at home and 36% during leisure activities. Data analysis showed that several subpopulations were found to be at risk as compared to their corresponding groups and relative proportion in the overall population of the city. These included contusions after falls in non-ultra-Orthodox Jewish women aged 65 years and over, crush injuries in ultra-Orthodox Jews under the age of 10 (53% vs. 14% for non ultra-Orthodox Jews, respectively) and Muslim teens. Muslims were injured more, especially at work, in comparison to their relative proportion in the population as a whole.

Conclusion: Different subpopulations at risk and different injury patterns of wrist and hand injuries were found in this culturally heterogeneous population. Awareness of these differences may be the first step when designing specific injury prevention programs in a culturally diverse population. A combined effort of community leaders and government agencies is needed to deal with the specific populations at risk, although legislation may be needed to limit some of the risks such as teens and specific work related hazards and exposures.

Keywords: Cultural and linguistic diversity; Emergency department; Hand trauma; Injury risk factors; Primary prevention; Questionnaires; Trauma epidemiology.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The Hadassah institutional ethics committee approved the study protocol.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The injury setting was found to differ significantly between genders (a) and religious groups (b). In patients over the age of 18, the setting was also found to differ according to the level of education (c). The significant results show the dependence between the variables. Results presented with 95% confidence interval error bars
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Significant differences between different segments of the Jewish population according to reported degree of religiosity for age groups (a), injury type (excluding explosion and burn injuries) (b) and mechanism of injury (c, most frequent mechanism presented) and the injury setting (d). Explosion and burn injuries were uncommon in this population. Burn injuries were occurred in 1, 2 and 1 patients in the Religious, Traditional and Secular patients, respectively. Explosion injuries occurred in 1, 3 and 4 patients in the ultra-Orthodox, Religious and Secular patients, respectively. The significant results show dependence between the variables. Results presented with 95% confidence interval error bars
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Comment in

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