A small-area population analysis of socioeconomic status and incidence of severe burn/fire-related injury in British Columbia, Canada

Socioeconomic determinants of injury have been associated with risk of burn in the UK and USA, but the relative significance of this impact is largely unknown across Canadian populations. The purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which socioeconomic status (SES) is linked to risk of burn in the province of British Columbia (BC) and identify the extent to which these findings are generalizable across both urban and rural population groups. Measures of SES were based on province-wide comparisons using data obtained from the Canada Census using the Vancouver Area Neighbourhood Deprivation Index (VANDIX). Results illustrate that the effects of SES and increased injury risk are substantial, though the most pronounced variations were exhibited across each SES stratum for urban areas and with less demonstrable effect when itemized by injury type within rural areas. Although conservative, the results from this study illustrate that burns disproportionately affect populations of greater relative socioeconomic disadvantage and continued efforts to also address social inequities and their link to injury incidence is likely to be more effective than targeting individual behavior alone when trying to reduce and eliminate their occurrence.