Epidemiological, demographic and outcome characteristics of burns

In 2014, approximately 200,000 deaths occurred in the United States from all injuries, and 31 million sustained non-fatal injuries. In a population of 318,857,056 persons, this represents a per capita death rate from injury of 0.063% (or approximately 6 per 10,000), and a non-fatal injury rate of 9.73% (or approximately 1 in 10). Therefore, injury is common, but related death is uncommon. For injuries from fire and burns specifically, 3,194 deaths occurred (1/100,000 population) which represented 1.6% of all injury fatalities, but only 1.3% of injuries. In all, 408,945 non-fatal burns occurred in the United States in 2014, giving a rate of 0.129% of persons in the United States sustaining a burn, or about 1 per 1000. These statistics indicate that burns remains a significant problem in the United States, and by implication the world. This chapter will investigate these statistics and changes that have occurred in burn occurrence, severity, and causes, and provide some insight into potential means to improve outcomes.