Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Injury is a significant public health concern that is a leading cause of mortality and disability worldwide. Severe and long-term impairment are expected outcomes of traumatic injury. Injuries have a significant financial and quality-of-life impact on persons and communities. The absence of fundamental epidemiological data on the prevalence of injuries prevents developing countries from creating effective prevention programs. The goal of this study was to characterise the epidemiological features of injury in the Adjara region. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The database and source of the data that we used in this article were provided from The Georgian National Center for Disease Control and Public Health's 2019 database. Which contains all hospitalizations in the Adjara area and was utilized to find instances of trauma that were treated at medical facilities. Based on the ICD-10 diagnosis codes S and T, as well as V-Y, cases were chosen. Version 23.0 of SPSS was used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Between the ages of 0 and 103, there were a total of 2 239 patients who were hospitalized for treatment of an injury. Of those patients, 1 321 (59%) were males, and 918 (41%) were women. The incidence was highest among those aged 65 and over (n=510; 23%), followed by those aged 20-34 (n= 488; 20%). The most prevalent cause of injury was falling (n=1 324; 59%), followed by exposure to inanimate mechanical forces (n=244; 11%). The range of hospital stays was 1 to 3652 days, with a median and mode of 3 and 2 days. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides valuable information for public health decision-making; the results of our research offer background data on hospitalizations for traumatic injury; also, it is the first study of its kind in the Adjara region providing such type of information. In order to enhance the standard of treatment and focus efforts on avoiding more injuries, intervention strategies may be devised using our data to understand better the extent of the injuries and outcomes linked to traumatic injury hospitalizations.