Epidemiological characteristics of 79 480 prehospital trauma patients in Shenzhen city, 2011-2015

Objective To analyze epidemiological features of prehospital trauma patients in Shenzhen city and to provide evidences for making effective measures on trauma prevention and control.Methods Data on all ambulance dispatches and electrical medical prehospital records for trauma patients from 2011 through 2015 were collected in Shenzhen Municipal Emergency Center and analyzed with SPSS 19.0.Results The number of trauma patients increased yearly during the 5-year period.Of the 79 480 trauma patients enrolled,76.5% were the young and middle-aged persons at ages of 20 to 49 years.More traumas occurred between October and December and less occurred during February in a year;while in a day,more traumas took place between 8 to 10 o'clock post meridiem and less between 4 to 6 o'clock ante meridiem.The distribution of prehospital response time showed a non-normal distribution,with a median of 9.12 minutes from an emergency call to ambulance arrival on a site of accident and a median of 23.31 minutes from a call to ambulance arrival on an emergency department;the prehospital response time for traumas differed among different administrative districts.The top three causes for all the traumas were traffic accident,fighting,and falling and 42.74% of the traumas were caused by traffic accident.Among the trauma patients aged ≤ 55 years,the top three causes were traffic accident,fighting,and falling;whereas among those > 55 years old,the top three were falling,traffic accident,and fighting,respectively,and 39.51% of the traumas were caused by falling.The proportion of lower-limb injury and spine injury increased with the age of the trauma patients.Injuries induced by traffic accidents,falling from high places,knife-cut,fighting,and excessive alcohol drinking were among the top 5 types of severe trauma.Conclusion The epidemiological features of prehospital traumas in Shenzhen city are associated with the trait of immigrant city,the unbalanced allocation of medical resources,and different causes of the traumas among elderly citizens,which deserve special concerns.