title: Epidemiology of injury in rural Pondicherry, India.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To find out the prevalence of "all" injuries, its nature, outcome and sources of treatment among rural population of Pondicherry.
  
  
  METHODS
  It was a triangulated study of quantitative (survey) and qualitative (Focus Group Discussion, FGD) methods. The trained second year medical undergraduate students paid house visits to all houses in five feasibly selected villages of our field practice area. The students interviewed the housewife and obtained information for all injuries for each family member in last one year and its sources of treatment. We could obtain information for 1,613 (96.7%) households. Post-survey, FGDs were undertaken to explore the various traditional treatments for the common injuries. The data was entered and analyzed using Epi_info 6.04d software package.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, the prevalence of all injury among all age groups was 30.6% in last one year. Injuries were significantly more after 18 years of age and among men (p was less than 0.001). About 99.2% injuries reported were accidental and majority (58.2%) went to government doctor for treatment. Most common causes of injuries were fall on the ground from height or due to slip (7.4%), road traffic accidents (5.6%), agriculture related injuries (5%) and bites by scorpion/insects/snakes /dogs (4.1%). FGDs explored some potentially harmful traditional remedial measures at village level such as application of mud or cow dung on the injury and burning the site of thorn prick on foot sole.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Considering the high prevalence of all injuries related to road traffic accidents, fall from height and agriculture work related injuries across all age groups, especially among men and some potentially harmful traditional treatments, an intervention in the form of targeted injury prevention program for different age and sex group, focusing health education efforts based on local epidemiology and behavioral practices is needed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College and Hospital, Pondicherry, India.
authors.forename: Ganapathy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kalaiselvan
authors.forename: Amol R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Dongre
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mahalakshmy
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001688:Biological Products; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012737:Sex Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D001688:Biological Products; C072197:beractant