Injury patterns in long-term refugee populations: a survey of Afghan refugees.
BACKGROUND
Injuries account for approximately 15% of global disability- adjusted life years lost each year and have an even greater impact on loss of life in vulnerable populations. For refugees, injuries reflect consequences of previous actions in their location of origin, current behavioral trends, and assimilation of risk factors from their adopted location. The Afghan Refugee Injury Survey (ARIS) was undertaken to describe the epidemiology of injuries in the long-term Afghan refugee population residing in Pakistan in 2002.


METHODS
ARIS is a cross-sectional survey of injuries, injury-related deaths, and disability administrated on a representative sample of households in selected Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. The sample design was a stratified, systematic sample of all households in the study area.


RESULTS
Altogether, 1,123 households, with 8,809 persons (51% males; mean age, 20 years +/- 17 years) were surveyed. One hundred twelve persons (1.27%, 95% CI = 1.0-1.5%) were injured during a 3-month recall period (69% males), reflecting an all-injury incidence of 50.8 per 1,000 persons/year.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study provides an epidemiologic profile of injuries in Afghan refugees in Pakistan which can be used to inform policy makers, public health professionals, and healthcare providers to support injury prevention as a component of refugee health care.
Hyder
Adnan A
AA
Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA. ahyder@jhsph.edu
Ghaffar
Abdul
A
Masud
Tayyeb I
TI
Bachani
Abdulgafoor M
AM
Nasir
Khurram
K
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000346:Afghanistan / Q000208:ethnology; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010154:Pakistan; D012036:Refugees / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015996:Survival Rate; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality