Injuries Second Leading Cause of Death in Rural India, Self-harm Plays Major Role

Injuries are the second leading cause of death in rural India, and self-harm plays major role, a new survey reveals.

According to the George Institute that conducted a mortality survey in the East and West Godhavari districts of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, injuries caused 13 per cent of all deaths in adults.

The survey also shoed that self-harm was responsible for 36 per cent of all injury-related deaths including poisoning, hanging and self-immolation.

Other causes of injuries resulting in death were falls (20 per cent) and road traffic crashes (13 per cent). A concurrent survey showed that falls (38 per cent) and road traffic crashes (25 per cent) were also the leading causes of injuries that did not result in death.

The study examined injury-related mortality and morbidity from residents in 53 villages in the two districts of A.P. that have a population of more than 200,000.

Around 90 per cent of injury-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries such as India where very little is known about the burden or causes of injury. Previously, health systems have been designed to cope with infectious diseases and injury is not recognised as a major public health issue by the local authorities because of poor availability of robust data on the injury burden, said the study author and Associate Professor Rakhi Dandona at The George Institute, India.

The new data demonstrate that we now need services that can deliver care and prevention for injury, Prof.Dandona said.