Prevalence and risk factors of cooking-related burn injury among under-five-years old children in a resource-limited setting: a community-based cross-sectional study in Northwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Cooking-related child burn injury causes a greater health burden in low-and-middle-income countries. Therefore, a community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 5830 under-five-years old children in a resource-limited community in Northwest Ethiopia to determine the prevalence and risk factors of this child health problem. Data were collected by trained nurses using a questionnaire and the logistic regression analysis method was applied to identify factors linked with burn injury. Injury prevalence was 6.2% (95% CI:5.5–6.8); and this burden was linked with several risk factors such as lower literacy status of caretakers [AOR = 2.21 (95% CI:1.05–4.67)], overcrowding [AOR = 2.35(95% CI:1.25–4.43], lack of separate kitchen [AOR =2.19 (95% CI:1.56–3.07)], using traditional cookstove [AOR = 2.04 (95% CI:1.23–3.36)], and lack of child supervision [AOR = 2.27 (95% CI:1.63–3.17)]. In conclusion, children experience a high burden of burn injury. Thus, stakeholders should work to reduce child burn injury by modifying the aforementioned risk factors.

Keywords:

• Burn injury
• child
• cooking burn hazards
• low-and-middle-income countries

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Research and Community Service Vice President at Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia for having funded this overlooked research topic. Also, we would like to extend our gratitude to all health and agricultural extension workers, local energy experts, field data collectors, supervisors, as well as primary caretakers of study children who participated in this study. To end with, we would like to express our appreciation to Amhara Regional State Health Bureau, West Gojjam Zonal Health Department, and ‘Mecha’ District Health Office.

Additional files

Additional file 1: Anonymously coded datasets analyzed for reporting the study entitled prevalence and risk factors of cooking-related burn injury among under-five-years old children in a resource-limited setting: A community-based cross-sectional study in Northwest Ethiopia.

Additional file 2: Disclosure

Authors’ contributions

MMA was the principal investigator of the study and took the leading responsibility, starting from the origin, design, and supervising of the data collection process to the final data analysis and preparation of the manuscript. Both AA and TS contributed, starting from the data analysis to the preparation of the manuscript and reviewing the final document.

Availability of data and materials

All datasets analyzed for reporting this study are included in this published article after being anonymously coded using the SPSS for Windows Version 22 software [Additional file 1].

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper [Additional file 2]. Also, all authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study proposal was approved on April 04/2018 after being reviewed by the Ethical Review Committee of College Medicine and Health Sciences at Bahir Dar University. The research was carried out within an appropriate ethical framework and all methods were performed following the relevant guidelines and regulations for research. For children to participate in the study, written informed consent or thumbprint witnessed by someone independent of the study for those unable to read and write was obtained from every parent or caretaker following the delivery of written information sheets in ‘Amharic’ (i.e. both official and study area language) to all parents or caretaker. The information sheet emphasizes voluntary participation and consent to participation could be withdrawn at any time, without giving a reason and without affecting the benefits to which the participant was entitled. Besides, no investigation was performed beyond the approved proposal and all data were analyzed anonymously. All injured children were referred to the nearest health centers for appropriate treatment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study project was financially supported by Bahir Dar University through the research funding scheme of MHDSS at Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia [grant number RCS/253/09]. The funder played no role in the study design, data analysis, interpretation of data, or reporting of the study findings.