Understanding Epidemiological Trends in Geriatric Burn Injuries: A National Multicenter Analysis from NEISS 2004-2022

Abstract Burn injuries pose a significant source of patient morbidity/mortality and reconstructive challenges for burn surgeons, especially in vulnerable populations such as geriatric patients. Our study aims to provide new insights into burn epidemiology by analyzing the largest national, multicenter sample of geriatric patients to date. Using the National Electronic Injury and Surveillance System (NEISS) database (2004-2022), individuals with a “burn” diagnosis were extracted and divided into 2 comparison age groups of 18-64 and 65+. Variables including sex, race, affected body part, incident location, burn etiology, and clinical outcomes were assessed between the 2 groups using 2 proportion z-tests. About 60,581 adult patients who sustained burns were identified from the NEISS database with 6630 of those patients categorized as geriatric (65+). Geriatric patients had a significantly greater frequency of scald burns (36.9% vs 35.4%; P .01), and third-degree/full-thickness burns (10.4% vs 5.5%, P .01) relative to nongeriatric adult patients with most of these burns occurring at home (75.9% vs 67.4%; P .01). The top 5 burn sites for geriatric patients were the hand, face, foot, lower arm, and lower leg and the top 5 burn injury sources were hot water, cookware, oven/ranges, home fires, and gasoline. Geriatric patients had over 2 times greater risk of hospital admission (odds ratio OR: 2.32, 95% CI: 2.17-2.49, P .01) and over 5 times greater risk of emergency department mortality (OR: 6.22, 95% CI: 4.00-9.66, P .01) after incurring burn injuries. These results highlight the need for stronger awareness of preventative measures for geriatric burn injuries.