Prevalence and Determinants of Domestic Accidents in a Rural Area of Kanchipuram District, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Accident is defined as, ‘‘an unintentional injury which is undesirable, incidental and unplanned event that could have been prevented under circumstances leading to the accident being recognized’’. Accidents are of different types and domestic accidents are a worldwide threat but have seen resurgence in rural India. The main purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and determinants of domestic accidents in rural area of Tamil Nadu and educate the people to reduce its burden. Materials and method: A community based cross sectional study, using a pre designed and pretested questionnaire was done in a rural area of Kanchipuram district, Tamil Nadu from 4^th January 2017 to 31^st January 2017. Data was collected from 1560 adults of both sexes and those who were the permanent residents of the study area. History of accident/injury during the past 3 months was obtained to avoid the recall bias. Results: It was found that 11.8 %( n=184) of the total study participants had a history of some form of accident/injury during the past 3 months. Out of these 184 subjects, 56.5 %(n=104) had domestic accidents. It was found that 51 %( n=53) of the domestic accidents have occurred due to ‘Fall’. Maximum numbers of the domestic accidents (42.3%) have occurred while the study subjects were working. Conclusion: Domestic accidents similar to any other disease have their own natural history and a sound knowledge about various determinants is essential to plan and administer prevention and control measures, and thereby reduce their burden especially in rural population. Increased awareness about the determinants will reduce the burden of the domestic accidents as they don’t simply befall on us from fate or bad luck.

Keywords: Domestic, Accidents, Injury, Fall