Living in rural areas is a major risk factor for severe burn injury in Turkey

The surroundings and lifestyle that are typical of rural areas are less safe than those of urban areas. This retrospective study analyzed risk factors of the patients with burn injuries who lived in rural areas. Between January 2000 and June 2011, 1145 patients were hospitalized in the Adana burn unit of Baskent University of whom 600 (52.5%) lived in rural areas and 545 (47.5%) lived in urban areas. The two groups were compared with respect to demographic characteristics, cause of burn injury, severity of burn injury, and length of hospital stay. The treatment methods used were recorded in the burn treatment registry. In this study, burns occurring in rural areas were deeper, larger, and caused more deaths than those occurring in urban areas, which may be due to the characteristics of the rural population, including the unavailability of transportation to the burn units. Rural burns were more frequent and more severe than urban burns, which demonstrate the importance of appropriate prevention directed at rural populations.