Article Text
Abstract
Introduction Beyond maternal health, there are other issues of women health like injury prevention that adequately need to be recognised. The objective is to look at the causes of injury mortality among Pakistani women.
Methods DHS in Pakistan was conducted from September 2006 till February 2007. The survey adopted a two-stage, stratified, random sample design. It included 95 000 households out of which a total of 1125 female deaths (12–49 years) were identified since January 2003. Verbal Autopsy questionnaires were successfully completed for 1062 females. All of the causes of death were coded according to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th version (ICD-10).
Result There were 66 (6%) deaths reported in PDHS 2006–2007 due to injuries. Of the 65 females, 47 had died due to RTIs, 9 due to burns/corrosions and 9 due to violence. These injuries were more common in younger women than older women affecting women between 12 and 35 years old (75%). Injury mortality was found to be almost twice as common in rural women compared to urban women (65% vs 35%) especially in case of RTI (68% in rural vs 32% in urban). Women with burns and violence were mostly home bound (burns=100% and violence=89%) while nearly 38% of women died due to RTI were working. Most women with injuries were married (61%) and majority of their husbands had attended school as well (RTI=56.7%, burns=80% and violence=66.7%).
Conclusion Injuries are common cause of deaths in younger Pakistani women.