Kathmandu, January 10
A new study on the burden of injuries in Nepal by some researchers at the University of West of England and the University of Washington has reported that, on average, 46 people succumb to different forms of injuries in Nepal every day.
The study conducted by a team of 20 researchers, including Nepalis and foreigners, finds out that injury-induced deaths make around 10% of the total deaths a year. In 2017, for example, 4.11% of the total deaths were caused by transport injuries, 3.54% by unintentional injuries and 1.55% by intentional injuries including interpersonal fights and suicide, the report informs.
The study used the Global Burden of Disease 2017 study data and estimated that there were 16,831 deaths caused by all kinds of injuries in 2017.
“We have published an account of the burden of all kinds of injuries – transport injuries, unintentional injuries and intentional injuries, for Nepal for the first time as a single manuscript,” Puspa Raj Pant, a Nepali researcher currently based in the United Kingdom, says, “We anticipate that this report will help readers from wider range understand about ‘injury’ as well as to know their burden in the country.” Pant, who obtained a PhD in injury prevention in 2013, led the research that incorporated the data from 1990 to 2017.
According to the findings, transport-related injuries claim 7,524 lives a year followed by 6,465 unintentional injuries (including deaths from falls, drowning, poisoning, fire burns among others) and 2,842 intentional injuries (including interpersonal violence, assaults and suicides). These figures are equivalent to a death rate of 56.3 per 100,000 population; with much higher rate for male population i.e. 76.2 per 100,000.
The report also provides separate estimates for six major subcategories of transport injuries: pedestrian road injuries (48%), motor vehicle road injuries (18%), motorcyclist road injuries (17%), cyclist road injuries (6%), other road injuries (1%) and other transport injuries (10%).
“According to the police records, only 2,451 people were killed (6.7 per day on average) and 12,391 injured from 10,965 incidents of road crashes occurred during 2017/18 in the country,” Pant says in a statement, “This number is much lower compared to road traffic deaths of 6,787 (18.6 per day average) estimated by this study.”
The research has identified growing number of motorised vehicles, with a majority of motorised two-wheelers, poor quality of roads that lack pavements for pedestrians, poor enforcement of traffic rules, and lack of road safety interventions and awareness as reasons of increasing road traffic deaths in Nepal. Similarly, distracted driving – using mobile phones while driving, and driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs may also have further augmented the risk of road crashes and injuries.
Pant says though road injuries constitute the biggest chunk among all forms of injuries in Nepal, other categories such as unintentional and intentional injuries should not be ignored.
The study has described the deaths and injuries due to unintentional injuries such as falls (45%), drownings (15%), injuries caused by venomous and non-venomous animals (7%), burns (6%), exposure to mechanical forces (5%), forces of nature (2%), poisonings (1%) and all other unintentional injuries cause 19% of total unintentional injury-related deaths. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the factors of fall injuries in population are associated to occupations, use of medications, alcohol and substances, underlying medical conditions, medical conditions that diminish balance and vision, and surrounding environment. The rising elderly population in Nepal can also be associated with ever-increasing fall injuries, according to the researchers.
Likewise, this study included self-harm or suicide (82%), interpersonal violence (17%) and conflict-related injuries (1%) under the sub-group of intentional injuries.
“There is no doubt injuries are hindering our aspirations of achieving Sustainable Development Goals with their negative impacts on health as well as the wealth of the nation. There is a strong need of recognising this problem as a major public health challenge and for very strong political commitment for its prevention and control,” Pant says.
