Biography
Farah Naz Rahman is a physician and researcher who is committed to develop her career in gerontology and geriatrics. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Gerontology (DL) at University of Southampton under Commonwealth Scholarship. Concurrently, she is working as a Research Associate in Centre for Injury Prevention and Research Bangladesh (CIPRB).
She completed her MBBS from Mymensingh Medical College under University of Dhaka and provided clinical service for one year in the geriatric medicine unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, the largest tertiary level health facility of Bangladesh. Farah has been involved in elderly research for last 3 years and conducted research and prevention program on elderly fall in Bangladesh. She recently carried out a research on health and quality life of indigenous elderly population of Bangladesh. Further, she is undertaking a project with Rohingya refugees of Bangladesh as part of her masters thesis. She is an active volunteer of several elderly care organizations in the community and a member of Alzheimer’s Society of Bangladesh and Bangladesh Association for the Aged and Institute of Geriatric Medicine (BAAIGM).
Rahman, F.
Epidemiology of geriatric injury in Bangladesh
Presenter:
Farah Naz Rahman, University of Southampton, United Kingdom
Abstract
Background
Everyday 2591 elderly people die due to injury worldwide. The complications and consequences of injury is different and worse among elderly than that of other age-groups. Yet injury often remains out of focus in geriatric research and care strategies specially in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Little is known about the cause, pattern and burden of injury among the elderly population of Bangladesh. Therefore, this paper aims to describe the epidemiology of geriatric injury of Bangladesh which will eventually help policy-makers to undertake strategies and interventions addressing this vulnerable-group.
Methods
Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey 2016 (BHIS 2016) is a nationwide survey carried out among 299,216 residents to identify the injury-related mortality and morbidity. Injury data among the population aged 60-years and above was extracted and analyzed for this study.
Result
Injury was found to cause 3.9% of the total deaths among the elderly population of Bangladesh. Mortality and morbidity rates due to injury were 157 (95% CI 112- 216) per 100,000 elderly population and 129 (95% CI 124-133) per 1000 elderly population respectively. Fatality rate was 182.6 (95% CI 98.9-310) among the urban population and 147 (95% CI 96.7-216) among rural population. Falls were identified as the leading cause of injury deaths, 47.2% (n=17) of all fatality followed by transport injuries 19.4% (n=7), suicide 13.9% (n=5), drowning 5.6% (n=2), burns 2.8% (n=1), electrocution 2.8% (n=1) and blunt injury 2.8% (n=1). Similar findings were found regarding morbidity where falls constitutes 48.1% (n=709) of total injury related morbidity followed by cut injury 15.8% (n=233) and transport injury 14.4% (n=212). Among all fatally injured victims, 72.2% received treatment from health service providers and among these 58.3% (n=21) went to registered doctors.
Conclusion
Falls are the leading cause of injury related mortality and morbidity among the elderly population of Bangladesh. A significant amount of deaths are due to road traffic injury (RTI) and suicide. Further in-depth research and interventions are needed to minimize this preventable burden of fatality and morbidity among the old-age population of Bangladesh which will ultimately help to achieve Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDG’s) for the country.