Objective: To understand the epidemiological characteristics of head injuries through data gathered from the Jiangsu Injury Surveillance System.
Methods: Data on head injury that occurred during 2006-2014 were collected from the Jiangsu injury surveillance system and analyzed by SPSS 19.0 software.
Results: From 2006 to 2014, data on 133 172 cases of head injuries were collected which accounting for 26.2% (133 172/509 175) of all the injury cases. Among them, males were 2.18 times higher than the females. The top five leading causes of head injuries were falls 24.6% (32 796/133 172), blunt force injuries 24.4% (32 446/133 172), motor car accident injuries 20.3% (26 993/133 172), knife or sharp force injuries 10.7% (14 183/133 172) and non-motor car accident injuries 6.7% (8 919/133 172). Main locations that head injuries occured would involve roads/streets 32.5% (43 262/133 172), working places 22.2% (29 526/133 172), at home 20.5% (27 925/133 172) and public residences 10.8% (14 367/133 172). Recreation activates 37.9% (50 479/133 172), driving 26.1% (34 749/133 172), paid jobs 24.8% (33 034/133 172) were the three major activities related to head injuries. Severity of injuries would depend on the situations on site. As for minor injuries, bruise accounted for 63.5% (67 929/106 912). Brain trauma 21.5% (5 119/23 803) and fracture 14.9% (3 554/23 803) appeared an increasing trend. Severe injuries would include brain trauma 74.6% (1 833/2 457). 78.8% (104 940/133 172) of the patients with head injuries would go home after receiving treatment the hospital, with fetality only as 0.1% (134/133 172).
Conclusion: Data from the Jiangsu surveillance program showed that Head injury appeared the highest proportion among all the body injuries that called for special attention.