Age-Specific Analysis of Injury; In Between Youth and Old, Late Middle Ages Increases Injury Vulnerability (Preprint)
BACKGROUND Injury is a leading cause of both mortality and moderate and severe disability. Injury is preventable, and there had been many injury prevention strategies in the past. Age is one factor that affects injury characteristics. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to investigate the national prevalence of injury by age groups to probe new injury prevention strategies. METHODS This data was collected retrospectively from the Emergency Department-based Injury In-depth Surveillance (EDIIS) in South Korea, including patient data who visit 25 emergency departments between January 2011 and December 2017. Patients were divided into four groups by age: 18 to 34 years as group 1; 35 to 49 years, group 2; 50 to 64 years, group 3; 65 years and over, group 4. RESULTS A total of 1,221,746 patients were included, and each age group had a different injury pattern. Group 3 injury outcomes and injured body parts are similar to Group 4. This is why old age injury prevention strategies should be devised right from middle age and not after old age. Interestingly, in our study, Group 4 and Group 1 both were unlikely to have worn seatbelt when traffic injury occurred, which is different compared to other country studies. CONCLUSIONS In our study, each age group shows diverse characteristics in the mode of injury, place, time, and outcome and Group3, which represents late middle age, shows increased vulnerability. Therefore, it is imperative that all age groups have their own injury prevention method and more caution is needed in late middle age injury. CLINICALTRIAL This data was collected retrospectively from the Emergency Department-based Injury In-depth Surveillance (EDIIS) in South Korea.This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Samsung Medical Center, IRB No. 2020-05-042.