Trauma research in Iran: a report of the Sina Trauma Data Bank.
BACKGROUND
Injuries are a major health problem in developing countries. Recently, the occurrence of injuries and those related to mortality have increased dramatically in Iran. We have conducted this study to report domestic research publications in the field of trauma from 2000 to 2006 in Iran.


METHODS
The contents of 128 biomedical journals were analyzed. Sina Trauma Data Bank (STDB) was selected as an indicator of trauma related articles that have been published in Iranian biomedical journals.


RESULTS
The number of trauma related articles in Iran increased during the seven year period (2000 - 2006), but the percentage of total publications was not significantly different. The mean number of authors per article was 2.7+1.3 (1 to 12) and all first authors were Iranian. Females constituted 15.4% (n=156) of first authors. Original articles were the most frequently published articles (n=871; 86.2%). Treatment of injuries and ensuing complications were the most common topics (42%) followed by war injuries (14.1%). Traffic accidents, as the leading cause of trauma death in Iran, were investigated in 27 (2.7%) articles.


CONCLUSIONS
According to our results, it seems that more attention from researchers and health-policy makers towards trauma is necessary in our country. In addition, publishing a journal with the main theme of injury and trauma could be an effective means for increasing the proportion of trauma related articles.
Khaji
Ali
A
Sina Trauma and Surgery Research Center, Sina General Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. akhaji@razi.tums.ac.ir
Ghodsi
Seyyed Mohammad
SM
Eftekhar
Behzad
B
Karbakhsh
Mojgan
M
D000328:Adult; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002648:Child; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014194:Traumatology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult