37
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      Fatal Injuries in the Slums of Nairobi and their Risk Factors: Results from a Matched Case-Control Study

      research-article

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPMC
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Injuries contribute significantly to the rising morbidity and mortality attributable to non-communicable diseases in the developing world. Unfortunately, active injury surveillance is lacking in many developing countries, including Kenya. This study aims to describe and identify causes of and risk factors for fatal injuries in two slums in Nairobi city using a demographic surveillance system framework. The causes of death are determined using verbal autopsies. We used a nested case-control study design with all deaths from injuries between 2003 and 2005 as cases. Two controls were randomly selected from the non-injury deaths over the same period and individually matched to each case on age and sex. We used conditional logistic regression modeling to identity individual- and community-level factors associated with fatal injuries. Intentional injuries accounted for about 51% and unintentional injuries accounted for 49% of all injuries. Homicides accounted for 91% of intentional injuries and 47% of all injury-related deaths. Firearms (23%) and road traffic crashes (22%) were the leading single causes of deaths due to injuries. About 15% of injuries were due to substance intoxication, particularly alcohol, which in this community comes from illicit brews and is at times contaminated with methanol. Results suggest that in the pervasively unsafe and insecure environment that characterizes the urban slums, ethnicity, residence, and area level factors contribute significantly to the risk of injury-related mortality.

          Related collections

          Most cited references27

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: not found
          • Article: not found

          Evidence-based health policy--lessons from the Global Burden of Disease Study.

            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Global and regional causes of death.

            Assessing the causes of death across all regions of the world requires a framework for integrating, and analysing, the fragmentary information that is available on numbers of deaths and their cause distributions. This paper provides an overview of the met and methods used by the World Health Organization to develop global-, regional- and country-level estimates of mortality for a comprehensive set of causes, and provides an overview of global and regional levels and patterns of causes of death for the year 2004. The paper also examines some of the data gaps, uncertainties and limitations in the resulting mortality estimates. Deaths for 136 disease and injury causes were estimated from available death registration data (111 countries), sample death registration data (India and China), and for the remaining countries from census and survey information, and cause-of-death models. Population-based epidemiological studies and notifications systems also contributed to estimating mortality for 21 of these causes (representing 28% of deaths globally, 58% in Africa). Ischaemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease are the leading causes of death, followed by lower respiratory infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diarrhoeal diseases. AIDS and TB are the sixth and seventh most common causes of death, respectively, lower than in previous estimates. One-half of all child deaths are from four preventable and treatable communicable diseases. Globally, around 6 in 10 deaths are from non-communicable diseases, 3 from communicable diseases and 1 from injuries. Injury mortality is highest in South-East Asia, Latin America and the Eastern Mediterranean region. These results illustrate continuing huge disparities in risks and causes of death across the world. Global mortality analyses of the type reported here have been criticized for making estimates of mortality for regions with limited, incomplete and uncertain data. Estimates presented here use a range of techniques depending on the type and quality of evidence. Better evidence on levels of adult mortality is needed for African countries. Considerable gaps and deficiencies remain in the information available on causes of death. Nine of 10 deaths in 2004 occurred in low- and middle-income countries, reinforcing the fundamental importance of improving mortality statistics as a measure of health status in the developing world. Acknowledging the controversies around use of incomplete and uncertain data, systematic assessments and synthesis of the available evidence will continue to provide important inputs for global health planning. Innovative methods involving sample registration, and the use of verbal autopsy questionnaires in surveys, are needed to address these gaps. Research on strategies to improve comparability of cause-of-death certification and coding practices across countries is also a high priority.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              Validity of verbal autopsy procedures for determining cause of death in Tanzania.

              To validate verbal autopsy (VA) procedures for use in sample vital registration. Verbal autopsy is an important method for deriving cause-specific mortality estimates where disease burdens are greatest and routine cause-specific mortality data do not exist. Verbal autopsies and medical records (MR) were collected for 3123 deaths in the perinatal/neonatal period, post-neonatal <5 age group, and for ages of 5 years and over in Tanzania. Causes of death were assigned by physician panels using the International Classification of Disease, revision 10. Validity was measured by: cause-specific mortality fractions (CSMF); sensitivity; specificity and positive predictive value. Medical record diagnoses were scored for degree of uncertainty, and sensitivity and specificity adjusted. Criteria for evaluating VA performance in generating true proportional mortality were applied. Verbal autopsy produced accurate CSMFs for nine causes in different age groups: birth asphyxia; intrauterine complications; pneumonia; HIV/AIDS; malaria (adults); tuberculosis; cerebrovascular diseases; injuries and direct maternal causes. Results for 20 other causes approached the threshold for good performance. Verbal autopsy reliably estimated CSMFs for diseases of public health importance in all age groups. Further validation is needed to assess reasons for lack of positive results for some conditions.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                abdhalah.ziraba@lshtm.ac.uk , akziraba@yahoo.com
                Journal
                J Urban Health
                Journal of Urban Health : Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine
                Springer US (Boston )
                1099-3460
                1468-2869
                1 June 2011
                1 June 2011
                June 2011
                : 88
                : Suppl 2
                : 256-265
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, Department of Population Studies, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Room LG21, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT UK
                [2 ]African Population and Health Research Center, 2nd Floor Shelter Afrique Center, Longonot Road, Upper Hill, P.O. Box 10787, GPO 00100 Nairobi, Kenya
                [3 ]African Institute for Development Policy, P.O. Box 14688-00800, Nairobi, Kenya
                Article
                9580
                10.1007/s11524-011-9580-7
                3132230
                21630106
                85c41d29-6525-4f93-9156-ca32d3a8309b
                © The New York Academy of Medicine 2011
                History
                Categories
                Article
                Custom metadata
                © The New York Academy of Medicine 2011

                Public health
                slums,case control study,conditional logistic regression,verbal autopsy,kenya,violence,demographic surveillance system,firearms,fatal injuries,road traffic crashes

                Comments

                Comment on this article