Sociodemographic Patterns of Pediatric Patients in Specialized Burn Care in Sweden

Abstract

Background: Trauma is a leading cause of mortality in children. Burns affect children disproportionally. Although burn incidence and mortality are decreasing, differences in the risk depend on socioeconomic status. The present study aimed to investigate the sociodemographic patterns of pediatric patients (0–17 years) managed at the two burn centers in Sweden, Uppsala, and Linköping, between 2010 and 2020. Method: This retrospective register-based study used hospital records from the two burn centers combined with information from Statistics Sweden plus data regarding number of asylum seekers from the Swedish Migrations Agency. Choropleth maps representing the patients’ geographical distribution were created. Information about income levels per geographic area was added. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test was performed to investigate differences in median income levels between the areas where the patients lived, related to Sweden’s median income. Results: The study included 2455 patients. Most of the children aged below 5 years (76%) and were boys (60%). The mean percentage of total skin area was 4.2%. There was no significant increment or decrease in the incidence of pediatric burns during the study. Most patients with recorded zip codes lived in areas with an income level below the national median (n = 1974, 83%). Children with asylum status were over-represented compared with residents and/or Swedish citizens. Conclusions: In Sweden, most pediatric burns occur in families that live in areas with low-income levels. Pediatric burns affect children with asylum status disproportionally compared with those who are residents in and/or citizens of Sweden. Prevention strategies should be designed and implemented to alleviate this health inequity.

Parental Stress and Child Quality of Life after Pediatric Burn

“…These families had a sound grasp of the English language, even if English was not their first language. These issues could be due to lower socioeconomic status, new immigration or refugee status, or other cultural differences [27][28][29], all of which have been shown to be factors that increase burn risk and vulnerability. Feeling helpless at the time of the injury was a common theme and found to be a risk for higher post-traumatic stress symptoms levels, consistent with the literature [16,17] and related to the finding that parents felt distress because they felt hopeless that they could not fix everything for their child [30].…”