Mortality and Years of Life Lost due to Burn Injury Among Older Iranian People; a Cross-Sectional study

The mortality of burn injury is a serious health problem among older people. The presentstudy aimed to determine the epidemiological characteristics of burn mortality and Years of Life Lost (YLLs)among people aged≥60.

The National and Subnational Burden of Disease (NASBOD) study includespopulation-based cross-sectional data from the death registration system of Iran and those recorded by thecemeteries of Tehran and Esfahan were used in this study. Spatio-temporal and Gaussian process regressionmodels were applied to estimate rates and trends of mortality and cause-specific mortality fractions. YLLs werecalculated using Iranian life expectancy and the number of deaths.

The mortality rate for 1990 and 2015was 17.4 and 4.5 per 100,000, respectively. From 1990 through 2015, the annual percentage of change in burnmortality rate was -6.1% in females and -4.4% in males. During 2015, there were 326 deaths following burns inpeople aged 60+ with 4586 person YLLs, and in 1990 there were 523 deaths with 4862 person-YLLs. The male-female ratio for 1990 and 2015 were 0.80 and 0.88, respectively. The age-standardized mortality rate was higherthan 8.5 per 100,000 in border provinces in 2015. The provinces with better socioeconomic situations, such asTehran, had a lower mortality rate than poor provinces, such as Sistan va Baluchistan.

Althoughburn mortality in old people decreased in those 26 years, it is still high compared to high-income countries.Continued efforts to increase preventive measures and adequate access to quality care, especially in borderprovinces, is suggested.