Browsing by Author "Lett, Ronald"

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    Intentional injuries among Ugandan youth: a trauma registry analysis
    (Injury Prevention, 2010) Mutto, Milton; Lett, Ronald; Lawoko, Stephen; Nansamba, Catherine; Svanstrom, Leif
    To determine intentional injury burden, incident characteristics, and outcomes among Ugandan youth. Methods A cross sectional analysis of trauma registry data from accident and emergency units of five regional referral hospitals was conducted. Data had been prospectively collected from all patients accessing injury care at the five sites between July 2004 and June 2005: youth records were analysed. Results Intentional injuries among youth victims, especially school-age males, are common in all five regions, constituting 7.3% of their injury burden with a male dominance. Intentional youth victimisation mainly occurred at home, on roads, and in public places; incidents were largely due to blunt force, stabs/cuts, and gunshots in general, although variations in causes were evident depending on age. Intentional injuries among the youth victims often manifested as head, neck, and face injuries: 2% were severe and there were 4%case fatalities at 2 weeks. Conclusions and recommendations Intentional injuries among youth victims, especially school-age males, are important contributors of injury burden in all five sites. Homes, roads, and public places are unsafe for Ugandan youth. Although guns were used in all five sites, less lethal mechanisms (blunt force, stabs/cuts, and burns) are the most common with variations between locations. Incidents involving teenage housewives could reflect underlying problem of domestic violence. Community based studies could be highly informative. Youth should be prioritised for prevention of injuries both in and out of school.
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    Piloting an Educational Response to Violence in Uganda: Prospects for a New Curriculum
    (A Journal of Injury and Violence Prevention, 2009) Mutto, Milton; Kahn, Kathleen; Lett, Ronald; Lawoko, Stephen
    This pilot study assessed Mato-Oput5 (hereafter the curriculum), a new peace education curriculum, for indications of beneficial efficacy, specifically the capacity to reduce negative attitudes towards conflict and violence, and injury and violence rates. A cluster randomised control design was used. Three of the six purposively selected schools were exposed to the curriculum. Mato-Oput5 is a value-based, formalised curriculum taught by specifically trained teachers. Its learning areas include conflict, conscience, violence, non-violence, impulse control, anger management, kindness, forgiveness, empathy and reconciliation. The results showed the baseline and post-intervention bio-demographic characteristics of the treatment arms to be comparable, thus suggesting baseline group equivalence and randomisation success. The follow-up loss was 9%. The mean pre- and post-intervention intentional incident rates of the intervention and control groups were 270/1000 and 370/1000, and 190/1000 and 350/1000, respectively: these differences were not significant. The intervention had no effect on post-intervention intentional incident rates. There were indications of beneficial efficacy in the curriculum, especially its ability to cause attitude shifts in support of non-violence. Statistically significant behavioural effects were not detected although a downward rate trend was seen in the intervention group.