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Introduction
Viet Nam, historically an agrarian country, has recently seen gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates of 7-9% per year. The poverty rate, although still substantial, dropped 30% in less than 10 years (58.1% in 1993 vs 28.9% in 2002) 1 demonstrating the positive affect of "Doi Moi", the liberalisation of the economy in 1986.
During periods of rapid development, the health impacts of economic growth and the associated societal transformations are often not taken into consideration in policy discussions. While the effect of economic development on the incidence of injury can be substantial, it is often hidden by lack of data documenting the magnitude of the burden in economic and social costs. Viet Nam exemplifies this with its rapid development coupled with the absence of an effective injury registration system.
The objective of the current study was to quantify the burden of work-related injury in a single commune in Viet Nam to better understand the occurrence of work-related injury in a rapidly industrialising, agrarian society. During rapid industrialisation there is vagueness between work and non-work time, since "leisure time" is often not considered in the same way in an agrarian society as in a developed economy. From a Western perspective, work and home life in Viet Nam are very closely intertwined. 2
Fila Bavi, a demographic surveillance site and epidemiological field laboratory, was established in Viet Nam in 1996 to facilitate the collection of appropriate health data, establish baseline health indicators and monitor change at the community level for policy makers and preventive health centres. 3 Hang et al 4 5 administered four cross-sectional household surveys during 2000 at 3-month intervals to collect information from adults sampled on injuries in the previous 3 months. The overall annual incidence of injury was reported as 89/1000 person-years. This rate was 30% lower than that of the USA (129/1000 persons) as reported by the National Health Interview Survey. 6 The incidence rate where the circumstance of injury was "work-related" (including that occurring in the home, at school, due to road traffic, etc) was 17 per 1000 person-years.
In 2005, we developed an active injury surveillance study in Xuan Tien Commune in Viet Nam. Results on the demographics of work and work culture from a household survey administered...