Severity of burn and its related factors: A study from the developing country Pakistan

• We examine various risk factors associated with severity of burn.
• Lower limb and head/neck burns resulted in higher severity of burn.
• Illiterate young men less than 25 years of age have higher severity of burn.
• Intention to harm one resulted in higher severity of burns.

BackgroundBurns are leading cause of fatal injuries and major cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries. The major obstacle in controlling severity is factors related to burn. This study determines frequency of burns and the factors related to it in Karachi, Pakistan.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted and 384 hospitalized adult patients with burns were consecutively interviewed during August 2013 to February 2014. Information was collected on socio-demographic profile, intent of burn, severity of burn, health hazards, physical and psychological characteristics. TBSA burn of >15% was considered as higher severity of burn.ResultsHigher severity of burns was found in 76.3% patients. Multivariate analysis showed that higher severity of burns were significantly associated with age less than 25 years (OR 2.7, 95% CI 1.5–4.9), never had been to school (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.7–5.9) and intentional burn (OR 20.6, 95% CI 5.0–84.9).ConclusionMajority of patients had higher severity of burn. The intent of injury was intentional, age less than 25 years and no schooling were found significantly associated with higher severity of burns.