Burn Epidemiology

Every so often the American Burn Association publishes their "National Burn Repository Report." The 2014 National Burn Repository (NBR) report "represents ten years of cumulative data from 96 United States Burn Centers, four Canadian Burn Centers, and two Swedish Burn Centers. The report contains over 190 thousand entries" (p. ix par 1). This report is the most extensive and all-encompassing collection of burn data in North America. Unfortunately, the pdf document is 141 pages long and thus is difficult for novice learners to access. Regardless of it's length, I will attempt to glean some valuable pieces of information from this document and share it here on my blog. For those of you who enjoy burns and huge pdf files I have include the citation at the bottom of this post.

Quick Take-Away Facts

Of the burns patients reported in the 2014 NBR, 69% were male. The mean age for all cases of burns was 32 years old with children under the age of 5 accounting for 19% of cases. Interestingly, children under the age of 5 were the only age group who's most frequent burn injury was not fire/flame injury. The most frequent burn injury for children under 5 is scald injuries. The elderly over age 60 represented 13% of all burn cases. As you might expect, the greatest predictors for mortality in relation to burns are age and % TBSA. 

Causes of Burns

Fire/flame injuries are the most common type of burn injury followed by scald injuries. Fire/flame and scald injures account for almost eight out of every ten burn injuries.

Circumstances

Gender

Race/Ethnicity

Burn Size (% TBSA)

Mortality Related to % TBSA

Recognize the direct relationship between % TBSA and mortality. Although it is interesting that roughly 50% of burn patients with TBSA of less than 69% survive.

Mortality by Age Group and Burn Size (% TBSA)

 

As I mentioned before, all of this information (an much more) can found in the pdf I have hyperlinked below. 

American Burn Association. National Burn Repository. 2014th ed. Chicago: n.p., 2014. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://www.ameriburn.org/2014NBRAnnualReport.pdf>.