Megan Prinsloo

• South African Medical Research Council

Limited alcohol-related injury data in hospital settings globally underscore the need for routine monitoring to inform policy formulation for injury prevention, especially in addressing violence and road traffic injuries. COVID-19 and the related alcohol sales bans in South Africa in 2020–21 brought the impact of alcohol on trauma presenting to hea...

Background Injuries, often preventable, prompted urgent action within the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to improve global health. South Africa (SA) has high rates of injury mortality, but accurate reporting of official national data is hindered by death misclassification. Objective Two nationally representati...

Not much is known about the perpetrators of male homicide in South Africa, which has rates seven times the global average. For the country’s first ever male homicide study we describe the epidemiology of perpetrators, their relationship with victims and victim profiles of men killed by male versus female perpetrators. We conducted a retrospective d...

Background The burden of alcohol use among patients with trauma and the relative injury risks is not routinely measured in South Africa. Given the prominent burden of alcohol on hospital trauma departments, South Africa needs practical, cost-effective, and accurate alcohol diagnostic tools for testing, surveillance, and clinical management of patie...

Background In most countries, reliable national statistics on femicide, intimate partner femicide (IPF), and non-intimate partner femicide (NIPF) are not available. Surveys are required to collect robust data on this most extreme consequence of intimate partner violence (IPV). We analysed 3 national surveys to compare femicide, IPF, and NIPF from 1...

Introduction Alcohol consumption is a key driver of the burden of violence and injury in South Africa (SA). Hence, we aim to validate various alcohol assessment tools against a blood test to assess their utility for improving national health practice and policy. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional pilot study from 3 to 19 August 2022 at Groote...

South Africa has an overall homicide rate six times the global average. Males are predominantly the victims and perpetrators, but little is known about the male victims. For the country’s first ever study on male homicide we compared 2017 male and female victim profiles for selected covariates, against global average and previous estimates for 2009...

We conducted a study to present the profile of non-natural deaths in South Africa during 2020/21 (2020/21 IMS). Overall, the all-cause injury mortality rate appeared to decrease across the three surveys (2009 IMS, 2017 IMS and 2020/21 IMS); however the decrease in 2020/21 may be linked to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and related restrictions....

BACKGROUND The burden of alcohol use among trauma patients and the relative injury risks is not routinely measured in South Africa (SA). Given the prominent burden of alcohol on hospital trauma departments, SA needs practical, cost-effective and accurate alcohol diagnostic tools for testing, surveillance and clinical management of trauma patients....

Background. Contrary to the World Health Organization’s internationally recommended medical certificate of cause of death, the South African (SA) death notification form (DNF) does not allow for the reporting of the manner of death to permit accurate coding of external causes of injury deaths. Objectives. To describe the injury cause-of-death profi...

Background South Africa has homicide rates six times the global average, predominantly among men, but little is known about male victims. As part of the country's first ever study of male homicide we compared 2017 male and female victim profiles for selected covariates, against global averages and previous estimates for 2009. Methods We conducted a...

Introduction The burden of alcohol use among trauma patients and the relative injury risks is not routinely measured in South Africa (SA). Given the prominent burden of alcohol on hospital trauma departments, SA needs practical, cost-effective and accurate alcohol diagnostic tools for testing, surveillance and clinical management of trauma patients...

Background: South Africa (SA)'s high rate of interpersonal violence persists as a leading public health problem for the country. The first South African Comparative Risk Assessment Study (SACRA1) in 2000 quantified the long-term mental and physical health burden attributable to interpersonal violence by supplementing the direct injury burden of di...

The article in context Evidence before the study. The first South African Comparative Risk Assessment (SACRA1) study showed a distinct risk factor profile in 2000 that was dominated by unsafe sex (31.5% of total DALYs) and interpersonal violence (8.4%). The risk factor profile reflected a combination of risks related to poverty and underdevelopment...

Background: In South Africa (SA), road traffic injuries, homicides and burns are the leading causes of injury-related deaths among children. Injury-related deaths are well documented for SA, but this is not the case for non-fatal injuries. Objectives: To describe the non-fatal injuries sustained among children aged 0 - 13 years, to identify any...

Background Child road traffic injuries are a major global public health problem and the issue is particularly burdensome in middle-income countries such as South Africa (SA) where injury death rates are 41 per 100 000 for under 5’s and 24.5 per 100 000 for 5–14-year-olds. Despite their known effectiveness in reducing injuries amongst children, and...

Background In 2009, the road traffic injury mortality rate (36.1 per 100 000 population) in South Africa was marginally lower than the rate for violence. Violence as a concerning public health problem receives considerably more attention from policy makers, and rates have halved between 1997 and 2012, while road traffic mortality rates remained con...

Background At 109 per 100 000 population, South Africa’s injury mortality rate is approximately 1.6 times higher than the global rate of 66.2 per 100 000. Although homicide rates declined since the 1990’s, they remain high along with road traffic injury deaths. Two injury mortality surveys for 2009 and 2017 will be utilised to determine if there wa...

(1) Background: Children in South Africa experience significant impacts from road injury due to the high frequency of road crashes and the low uptake of road safety measures (including the use of appropriate child restraints). The current study aimed to assess the feasibility of a child restraint program and to describe factors influencing child re...

Background Road traffic collisions contribute a significant burden of mortality and morbidity to children globally. The improper or non-use of child restraints can result in children sustaining significant injuries in the event of a collision. Systematic reviews on the effectiveness of various interventions to increase the use of child restraints a...

Background: Child road traffic injuries are a major global public health problem and the issue is particularly burdensome in middle-income countries such as South Africa where injury death rates are 41 per 100,000 for under 5's and 24.5 per 100,000 for 5-14-year-old. Despite their known effectiveness in reducing injuries amongst children, the rate...

Injuries impose a fourth major disease burden on the South African population, which is driven in particular by the high incidence of interpersonal violence. There was a significant decline in mortality from interpersonal violence between 1997 and 2012, and research conducted by South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) researchers has ascribe...

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have highlighted interpersonal violence and violence against women and girls as impediments to development globally. South Africa is adversely affected by violence and injury. The annual Victims of Crime Survey (VoCS) provides a potentially useful source of complementary data to bolster vital registration an...

Background Pediatric injuries are associated with significant morbidity and mortality, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Data to characterize the cause and risk factors associated with childhood injuries in these countries are, however, very scarce. The aim of this study is to describe the injuries sustained among children, and possib...

Background. Gunshot injuries from interpersonal violence are a major cause of mortality. In South Africa (SA), the Firearms Control Act of 2000 sought to address firearm violence by removing illegally owned firearms from circulation, stricter regulation of legally owned firearms, and stricter licensing requirements. Over the last few years, varied...

Background: Gunshot injuries from interpersonal violence are a major cause of mortality. In South Africa (SA), the Firearms Control Act of 2000 sought to address firearm violence by removing illegally owned firearms from circulation, stricter regulation of legally owned firearms, and stricter licensing requirements. Over the last few years, varied...

Background: The poor health of South Africans is known to be associated with a quadruple disease burden. In the second National Burden of Disease (NBD) study, we aimed to analyse cause of death data for 1997–2012 and develop national, population group, and provincial estimates of the levels and causes of mortality. Method: We used underlying cause...

Background. The Western Cape Province had the highest homicide rates in South Africa during the early 2000s. South African Police Service (SAPS) data suggested a significant decline in homicide rates in the Western Cape since 2007. It ranked second highest to the Eastern Cape Province until 2013 and ranked highest again at 52.1/100 000 in 2015. A r...

To investigate injury-related mortality in South Africa using a nationally representative sample and compare the results with previous estimates. We conducted a retrospective descriptive study of medico-legal postmortem investigation data from mortuaries using a multistage random sample, stratified by urban and non-urban areas and mortuary size. We...

Background Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2010 results show continued limitations of data quality and availability in most of the African region. Focused efforts in South Africa, however, have contributed to improved completeness and availability of mortality data, such that South Africa is currently undertaking a secon...

Background Vital registration data indicate that injury deaths have decreased since the first National Burden of Disease (NBD) study in South Africa for 2000 but it is not clear which injury types may have been affected as a high proportion have undetermined intent. In order to quantity injury types, as part of the second NBD study, we conducted a...

To develop a standardized method for calculating years lived with disability (YLD) after injury. The method developed consists of obtaining data on injury cases seen in emergency departments as well as injury-related hospital admissions, using the EUROCOST system to link the injury cases to disability information and employing empirical data to des...

Homicide rates for South African children were estimated at double the global average in 2000. This article presents a secondary data analysis of the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System (NIMSS), with full coverage in four major metropolitan cities. Child homicide rates for 2001-2005 were calculated within the 0-4, 5-9 and 10-14 year age g...

Mortuary-based surveillance typically collates information from three sources: postmortem reports completed by forensic pathologists, police crime incident reports and chemical pathology laboratory results. The data are an important tool to inform prevention efforts and to monitor their effectiveness, and represent an underutilised source of descri...

IntroductionSouth Africa has a high injury burden, with homicide and road traffic injuries (RTI) being the leading causes of injury death. There is little information about long-term trends. Good quality vital statistics are available for 1968–1989 for selected population groups and will be analysed towards understanding the historical pattern of v...

A survey of medical superintendents revealed that an estimated 1.5 million trauma cases presented to South Africa's 356 secondary and tertiary level hospitals in 1999. Injury rates for traffic, violence and other injuries showed considerable inter-provincial variation, with violence accounting for more than half of the trauma caseload. This type of...

Firearm-related fatalities accounted for nearly half (46.1%) of all homicides in Cape Town in 2001. Cape Town\'s homicide rate of 88 per 100 000 population was among the highest of five cities that had full coverage by the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System (NIMSS), and while the number of non-firearm homicides has remained fairly consta...

This study explored the factors impacting on the criminal investigation process at two police stations in Cape Town. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with police officers at different ranks to document the procedures and route of reported crimes and to explore the factors impacting on the criminal investigation process. The interviews prov...