Treatment Outcome, Pattern of Injuries and Associated Factors Among Traumatic Patients Attending Emergency Department of Dessie City Government Hospitals, Northeast Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background

Traumatic injuries are a major cause of emergency room visits and hospital workload, and they are a global health concern. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the pattern of injuries, treatment outcomes, and associated factors among traumatic patients attending the emergency department of Dessie City Government Hospitals, Northeast Ethiopia.

Methods

An institutional-based retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted among 415 traumatic patients selected by using a systematic random sampling technique, from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2022. Data were collected through document review. The data were presented with frequency tables and graphs. Data were entered using EPI data version 4.6 and exported to SPSS version 26 for analysis. Both bi-variable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to analyze the relationship between the independent variable and the outcome variable. As a measure of association, the adjusted odds ratio was utilized, which has a 95% confidence level. Statistically significant variables were those with a p-value of less than 0.05.

Results

From 420 patient charts, 415 traumatic patients’ charts were reviewed in this study, with a response rate of 98.8%. The prevalence of good treatment outcomes among traumatic patients was found to be 67% [95% CI: 62.2, 72.0]. In the final multivariable analysis, having comorbidity [AOR=, 0.31 95% CI: 0.16, 0.60], arriving within one hour [AOR=4.79, 95% CI: 2.10, 10.94], arriving two up to twenty-four hours [AOR=2.25, 95% CI: 1.34, 3.78] and being conscious at admission [AOR=1.82, 95% CI: 1.02, 3.26] had a significant association with a good treatment outcome among traumatic patients.

Conclusion

Trauma constitutes a major public health problem in our setting and contributes significantly to unacceptably high morbidity and mortality. Interventions should be targeted at urgent injury prevention and management strategies, along with the establishment of a pre-hospital emergency medical service system.

Keywords:

• injury
• pattern
• treatment outcome
• associated factors

Data Sharing Statement

Due to the dangers of participant identification and the difficulty of ensuring genuine anonymization, the datasets created and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available. However, the corresponding author may make subsets of the data available upon justifiable request.

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

Ethical clearance was obtained from the Institutional Research and Ethics Review Committee (IRB) of Wollo University, College of Medicine, and Health science. Individual patients were not harmed as long as confidentiality was maintained because the study was done by reviewing medical records. No personal information was included on the data collection form to maintain confidentiality, and no one other than the principal investigator had access to the recorded data. All methods were performed in compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Acknowledgment

We would want to first and foremost express our sincere gratitude to Wollo University for providing this opportunity. Additionally, we would like to express our gratitude to Dessie Comprehensive Specialized Hospital and Boru Media General Hospital for helping us gather data for this thesis.

Disclosure

All authors declare that they have no competing interests.