Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey 2016 (BHIS 2016): Summary Report

Similar to many low- and middle-income countries Bangladesh is passing through an epidemiological transition where there are changes in the causation of diseases and deaths. As a result, injury has appeared as one of the major causes of death, morbidity and disability in Bangladesh. However, data on the magnitude and risk factors of injury especially in low resource setting are scarce. In 2003 a nationally representative Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey1 (BHIS) was conducted by the Institute of Child and Mother Health (ICMH) with the support from Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), UNICEF-Bangladesh and The Alliance for Safe Children (TASC) to measure the magnitude of the injuries.
BHIS 2003 was the largest injury survey ever conducted at the community level in a developing country with a sample size of 171,366 households and a total surveyed population of 819,429. It looked at all causes of death (communicable, non­communicable and injury) and showed the burden of injury in proportion to communicable and non-communicable causes. It characterized injuries in all age groups and looked at moderate, major, serious, severe, and fatal injuries in detail. It examined behavioural and economic aspects as well as the epidemiology.
BHIS 2016 was conducted to measure the current injury situation in Bangladesh after 13 years of the previous BHIS. This survey also uses the same methodology as BHIS 2003 with minor modifications. It defines injury in proportion to all other causes but without classifying them into specific communicable and non-communicable causes. It focuses primarily on the epidemiology of fatal and nonfatal injury, and it extended the definition of moderate severity to include any injury that resulted in loss of 1 day of work, school attendance or ability to care for oneself. Additionally, while BHIS 2003 focused on child age ­groups, BHIS 2016 reports on all age groups, including infancy, childhood, young adulthood, middle age and old age. This survey utilised tablets to collect data instead of printed questionnaires as used in BHIS 2003.
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Rahman, A., Chowdhury, S. M., Mashreky, S. R., Linnan, M., Rahman, AKM. F., Hossain, M. J., Ahmed, T., Baset, K. U., Talab, A., & Ali, S. (2016). Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey 2016 (BHIS 2016): Summary Report. Dhaka: Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
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