626 Causes and Injury Patterns of Elderly Burn Patients

Introduction Older patients are a particularly vulnerable population with respect to burn injuries. The American Burn Association has invested resources in improving burn care and burn prevention within this age group, recognizing the difficulties in both the identification and subsequent modification of risk factors. The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) is maintained by the Consumer Product Safety Commission to surveil for injury trends and is populated with data from a representative group of approximately 100 emergency departments in the United States. This database could serve as a useful tool to evaluate burn injury patterns in elderly patients with an eye toward targeted prevention measures. Methods The NEISS was queried for patients aged 55 years and older with a diagnosis of scald, thermal, chemical, electrical, or unspecified burn injuries for the years 2008 - 2017. Each injury was classified by body part(s) burned, causative product, gender, and age group of patient (55–64, 65–74, 75–84, 85 and older). The ten most commonly burned sites as well as the ten most common causative products were determined for each gender and age group and in aggregate. Weighted estimates from the NEISS data were utilized to calculate injury numbers across the population. Results The most common etiology of burn injuries for all patients aged 55 and older was hot water. Men were most commonly injured by gasoline, a product which did not rank in the top ten for women in any age group. Additionally, within each age group, gasoline was among the top 4 products that was associated with burn injuries in men. Cookware was the second most common cause of burn injury among women aged 55 and older and was the sixth most common cause among men. For women, the combination of cookware and ranges/ovens was among the top 2 products associated with burn injury within each age group. The most commonly injured body part for all patients was the face. This held across most age and gender groupings except for women aged 75 to 84 (upper trunk), and women 85 and older (foot). Men were more likely to injure their hands than women. Conclusions The most common cause of burn injuries in older adults is hot water, and the most common body part affected is the face. Women are more likely to be injured by cookware and ranges/ovens. Men are more likely to be injured secondary to gasoline and are more likely to injure their hands. Applicability of Research to Practice NEISS data could be useful in the development of targeted prevention campaigns, such as focused education about the dangers of hot liquids, cooking, and accelerants.