Injury control and safety promotion
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Inj Control Saf Promot · Mar 2003
Review Comparative StudyStrengthening care for injured persons in less developed countries: a case study of Ghana and Mexico.
In all countries, the priority for reducing road traffic injuries should be prevention. Nonetheless, there are low-cost ways to strengthen the care of injured persons, that will help to lower the toll from road traffic. The purpose of this review was to elucidate ways to accomplish this goal in the context of less developed countries. ⋯ This would define the trauma treatment services that could realistically be made available to virtually every injured person. It would then address the inputs of human resources, physical resources, and administration necessary to assure these services optimally in the different geographic and socioeconomic environments worldwide. Finally, it would identify and target deficiencies in these inputs that need to be strengthened.
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Inj Control Saf Promot · Mar 2003
Review Comparative StudyTraffic-related injury prevention interventions for low-income countries.
Traffic-related injuries have become a major public health concern worldwide. However, unlike developed or high-income countries (HICs), many developing or low-income countries (LICs) have made very little progress towards addressing this problem. Lack of the progress in LICs is attributable, in part, to their economic situation in terms of their governments' lack of resources to invest in traffic safety, cultural beliefs regarding the fatalism of injuries, competing health problems particularly with the emergence of HIV/AIDS, distinctive traffic mixes comprising a substantial number of vulnerable road users for whom less research has been done, low literacy rates precluding motorists to read and understand road signs, and peculiar political situations occasionally predominated by dictatorship and non-democratic governments. ⋯ Almost all interventions and strategies that have been proven effective in HICs will need to be evaluated in LICs and particular attention paid to the effectiveness of enforcement measures. It behooves LIC governments, however, to ensure that only standard, approved safety devices like helmets are imported into their countries. Additionally, LICs may need to improvise and innovate in the traffic safety technology transfer.
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Inj Control Saf Promot · Dec 2002
Multicenter Study Comparative StudyComparative evaluation of different modes of a national accident and emergency department-based injury surveillance system: Jamaican experience.
The objective was to conduct a comparative evaluation of two injury surveillance systems in operation in the Accident and Emergency departments of public hospitals in Jamaica. The evaluation was conducted at 12 hospitals across Jamaica offering varying levels of service delivery. It was designed in three phases: (1) a retrospective review of surveillance system data; (2) prospective process evaluation; (3) system environment evaluation. ⋯ Recommendations were made to improve data quality in both data collection systems. Although shortcomings were identified with the A&ESR, the system is performing the function for which it was designed, that of tracking A&E workload. The PAS/JISS is more user-friendly and a truer reflection of the injury situation.
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Inj Control Saf Promot · Dec 2002
Implementing a hospital-based violence-related injury surveillance system--a background to the Jamaican experience.
Violence, a leading cause of injuries and death, is recognized as a major public health problem. In 1996, injuries were the second leading cause of hospitalizations in Jamaica. The estimated annual cost of in-patient care for injuries was 11.6 million US dollars. ⋯ The majority, 70% (4,252), were the result of a fight or argument and 17% were admitted to the hospital. The VRISS utilized A&E department data to characterize violence-related injuries in Jamaica, a resource-limited environment. These data will be used to guide intervention development to reduce violence-related injuries in Jamaica.