Epidemiologic characteristics of death by burn injury from 1991 to 2001 in Korea

This study was designed to investigate the epidemiologic characteristics of death from burn injury in Korea. We recoded the death certificate database from 1991 to 2001 inclusive based on the short version of the International Classification of External Causes of Injuries (ICECI). Using variables such as sex, marital status, educational level, location of residence (metropolitan versus provincial), injury mechanism, and year, we calculated and compared the mortality rates and percentiles because of burn injury, and determined the adjusted odds ratio (OR) to assess the effect of socioeconomic factors on suicide deaths. The total number of deaths because of injury was 346,656, and the number of deaths because of burn injury was 9109 (2.6%), making burn injury the sixth leading cause of death from injury during the study period. The mortality rate due to burn injury was 1.8 per 100,000 person-years in 2001, without long-term change from 1991. Major mechanisms of death included surface burns (80.7%), smoke inhalation (14.4%), respiratory burns (1.5%), and associated trauma (3.5%). The number of the suicide deaths was 466 from 1993 to 2001 inclusive, and the adjusted OR for suicide burns compared to accidental burns was significantly larger in the more highly educated, metropolitan, and married and divorced groups than it was in the never-attended-school, provincial, and never-married groups, respectively.