A pilot study of a hospital-based injury surveillance system in a secondary level district hospital in India: lessons learnt and way ahead.
BACKGROUND
Reliable epidemiological information on injury burden and pattern is essential to formulate effective injury control and prevention strategies. Injury surveillance systems are globally gaining ground as a tool for collecting such systematic data on injuries, but less so in low and middle income countries. This study describes the experience of setting up a District Level Hospital-Based Injury Surveillance System in India and the pattern of injuries encountered therein.


METHODS
A prospective study was conducted during Jan-Dec 2012 at the emergency department of a District Hospital in Fatehgarh Sahib in a North Indian state of Punjab. A comprehensive injury proforma was devised to record information on all injury cases reporting to the hospital. Emergency Medical Officers were trained to record data.


RESULTS
A total of 649 injuries were reported in 2012. The surveilance system used the existing resources at the hospital to collect data without the need for additional manpower, equipments etc. About 78 % of injuries reported were unintentional in nature. More than half (52.9 %) of the patients had injuries due to Road Traffic Crashes. Head (29.7 %) was the most common site of injury. Incised injury (50.2 %) was the most common type of injury and most of the injuries occurred while travelling (61.8 %).


CONCLUSIONS
Developing better and sustainable systems of routine injury surveillance or trauma registries is essential to generate reliable information for formulating effective intervention policies.
Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh, India. pvm_lakshmi@yahoo.com.
P V M
PV
Lakshmi
Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh, India.|International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, The Union South East Asia Office, New Delhi, India.
Jaya Prasad
JP
Tripathy
Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh, India.|Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
Nalinikanta
N
Tripathy
Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh, India.
Sunita
S
Singh
Integrated Disease Surveillance Project, Punjab, India.
Deepak
D
Bhatia
Injury Division, The George Institute for Global Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Jagnoor
J
Jagnoor
Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh, India.
Rajesh
R
Kumar
Hospital-based; India; Injury surveillance