Retrospective Analysis of Injuries and Hospitalizations of Patients Following the 2009 Earthquake of L’Aquila City

Jacopo Del Papa, Pierpaolo Vittorini, Francesco D’Aloisio, Mario Muselli, Anna Rita Giuliani, Alfonso Mascitelli and Leila Fabiani
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Jacopo Del Papa: Postgraduate Schools of Hygiene and Public Health—Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L’Aquila, P.le S. Tommasi, 1, 67100 Coppito, L’Aquila, Italy
Pierpaolo Vittorini: Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L’Aquila, P.le S. Tommasi, 1, 67100 Coppito, L’Aquila, Italy
Francesco D’Aloisio: Postgraduate Schools of Hygiene and Public Health—Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L’Aquila, P.le S. Tommasi, 1, 67100 Coppito, L’Aquila, Italy
Mario Muselli: Postgraduate Schools of Hygiene and Public Health—Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L’Aquila, P.le S. Tommasi, 1, 67100 Coppito, L’Aquila, Italy
Anna Rita Giuliani: Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L’Aquila, P.le S. Tommasi, 1, 67100 Coppito, L’Aquila, Italy
Alfonso Mascitelli: Regional Health Agency of Abruzzo Region (Italy)—Via Attilio Monti, 9, 65127 Pescara PE, Italy
Leila Fabiani: Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L’Aquila, P.le S. Tommasi, 1, 67100 Coppito, L’Aquila, Italy

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 10, 1-18

Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the injury patterns and the hospitalizations of patients who were admitted to hospital following the 2009 earthquake in the city of L’Aquila, Central Italy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to analyze the patterns of earthquake-related injuries in Italy. We reviewed the hospital discharge data of 171 patients admitted to hospital within the following 96 h from the mainshock. This is an observational and descriptive study: We controlled for variables such as patient demographics, primary and secondary ICD-9-CM (International Classification of Diseases) diagnosis codes in order to identify the multiple injured patients, main type of injury that resulted in the hospital admission, discharge disposition, and average length of stay (LOS). Seventy-three percent of the 171 patients were admitted to hospital on the first day. Multiple injuries accounted for 52% of all trauma admissions, with a female to male ratio of 63% versus 37%. The most common type of injuries involved bone fractures (46.8%), while lower extremities were the most frequently affected sites (38.75%). The average LOS was 12.11 days. This study allows the evaluation of the impact of earthquake-related injuries in relation both to the health needs of the victims and to the use of the health care resources and assistance.

Keywords: injury; earthquake; natural disaster; trauma; fractures; hospital discharge records; ICD-9-CM; disaster medicine; Italy; L’Aquila (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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