PREVIOUS TRAUMA AS A RISK FACTOR FOR RECURRENT TRAUMA IN RURAL NORTHERN ISRAEL

Background: Recently, a few urban trauma centers reported on repetitiv eness of injury in some population groups. The aim of this study is to evaluate the concept of ''trauma recidivism'' by measurement of the a ssociation of previous trauma events with acute trauma in a rural regi on of northern Israel with a specific sociocultural population mixture , low drug and alcohol abuse, and low levels of criminal activity. Met hods: A case-control study was conducted comparing 100 consecutive tra uma cases with selected controls, The main predictor variable evaluate d in this study was a history of previous significant traumatic events . Cases were defined as patients > 14 years of age hospitalized for ac ute trauma, Controls were selected from hospitalized patients with non traumatic conditions, Logistic regression analysis was performed to ad just for potential sociodemographic confounding factors. Results: The trauma group was significantly younger (p < 0.001) and predominantly m ale (p < 0.03), The incidence of ''recurrent tramna'' was highly signi ficant in this group (p < 0.00001), and ''injury-free intervals'' were significantly shorter (p < 0.002), A history of previous significant traumatic events was a strong predictor for recurrent trauma (adjusted odds ratio, 10.36; 95% confidence interval, 3.10-34.58). Injury types and patterns differed in subgroups, although the demographic structur e of the trauma recidivists group conformed to that of the general pop ulation. Conclusions: In this limited population study from rural nort hern Israel, a previous history of significant trauma is associated wi th recurrent trauma, Sociodemographic and cultural factors do not appe ar to be strong predictors for recurrent trauma, Further research inve stigating trauma recidivism is needed to clarify these relationships.