Epidemiological Investigation of Burn Injuries amongSchool Going Children: Findings fromPak-ItalianModern Burn Center, Nishter Medical University, Multan

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the epidemiology of burn injuries among school going children at Pak-Italian Modern Burn Center Nishter Medical University Multan. Methodology: The sample of this cross- sectional study was consisted of 150 school going children fromwhich 86wereboys and 64 were girls between the ages of 5-12 years, studied fromFebruary2022 to March 2023. A self-administered questionnaire was used which include the demographic information of the family of burn children, Source of burn injury, Type of burn injury, place of burn injury, body area that wasburnt, TBSA, Interviews were taken from the care givers of the children with burn injuries admitted in the Pak-Italian Modern Burn Center Multan. Children other than South Punjab, children with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and physically handicapped children were not included in the study. Results: The findings of this study indicated that the majority of the children with burn injuries 75% were belonged to rural areas. 57%burn injuries were occurred with boys, 84.6% children belonged to poorf a milies.30.6% children were burned with fire and 26% were burned with hot water.42.6% children were burned during playing with fire and 38.6%were burned during playing around the burn areas.30.7% children have 11-20TBSA and only 4.6% children had above 40 TBSA. 29.4% children have upper limb burn injuries and 23.4% have lower limb burn injuries. Conclusion: we foundthat playing with fire and playing around the burning areas were the maincauses of burn injuries among school going children and boys have more burn injuries as compared to girls. There is need to give awareness about burn injuries to school going children.

Key Words: Burin Injuries, School going Children, Epidemiology,