Demographics
Patterns of Ethnicity, Age, and Gender
“Mortality is higher for children under four (especially from birth to age 1), and for adults over age 65.3” (Culleiton & Simko, 2013).
Males are more likely to experience a burn than females. (Theodorou, Xu, Weinand, Perbix, Maegele, Lefering, & Spilker, 2013) The age group of 21-50 years is more likely to experience a burn than other age groups. (Theodorou, Xu, Weinand, Perbix, Maegele, Lefering, & Spilker, 2013) “Smoking is the leading cause of fire-related deaths.” (“Fire deaths and”, 2011) “Most residential fires occur during the winter months.” (“Fire deaths and”, 2011) In the US, the most common ethnicities at risk for burns are African-Americans and whites. (Peck, 2011) |
When looking through patterns of burn injuries, it is thought that males are more likely to take risks than females, therefore more at risk for burns. The age group of around 20 through 50 year olds is the most likely to have a burn injury, however, children are more likely to have severe consequences from the burn due to the rapid growth during the pediatric years. In children, the most common type of burn is a thermal burn, and 97.1% of these injuries occur at home. (D'Souza, Nelson, and McKenzie 1424-1430). As nurses, it is our responsibility to educate parents on how to keep their children out of harm’s way in the home. This includes keeping the water heater on a lower temperature, placing chemicals out of reach, teaching “hot” and “don’t touch” at a young age, and keeping close watch of children.
The incidence of burns has declined over the past 20 years, probably contributed to education to the public on how to prevent burns. (Theodorou, Xu, Weinand, Perbix, Maegele, Lefering, & Spilker, 2013)
90% of burn deaths come from lower and middle income countries. (Peck, 2011) “Over one-third home fire deaths occur in homes without smoke alarms” (“Fire deaths and”, 2011) “…death from fire and flames is 16 times higher in the lowest socioeconomic class compared to the highest.” (Peck, 2011) “Education of mothers is a factor in children’s vulnerability.” (Peck, 2011) |
One issue in access to care and delay of care is the possibility of the burn from abuse. If the injury is from abuse, it is a lot less likely for parents to bring the child to the hospital for medical care. The family may eventually decide the child needs to go to the emergency room, but at this time it may be too late to be able to fluid resuscitate. It has been proven that children with ADD/ADHD are more likely to be victims of abuse than other children. (Giardino, 2014). Signs of abuse in children are circumferential burns of the legs or bottom with no splash marks, or a story that does not make sense because it does not match the description of the injury, and blames the child. Burn injuries can be very expensive, and the patient can be hospitalized for an extended period of time. This may deter someone from seeking medical care when they need it because of family or social needs.