The characteristics of, and risk factors for, child injuries in Andhra Pradesh, India: the Young Lives project

Risk factors for falls among children aged 0-18 years: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Accidental falls are the most common cause of injury in children. These falls not only result in pain and injury to children but also can pose a significant financial burden to their families and society. The aim of this study is to identify risk factors for falls in children.

METHODS

We conducted a systematic review of the literature describing falls in children aged 0-18 years. Studies of falls from a height of 1 m or more were excluded from the analysis. We analyzed the included studies to identify risk factors for falls.

RESULTS

A total of 1496 articles were initially retrieved, leading to an included set of nine articles, which were published from 1995 to 2021. Risk factors related to fall injury in children aged 0-18 years included age, sex, extroversion, rural areas, history of falls, family factors, caregiver factors, medication use, intravenous therapy, tests requiring movement, disease factors and long hospital stay.

CONCLUSION

We identified 12 risk factors affecting falls in children, including individual characteristics and family and social factors.

Reported safety environment predicts injuries among children aged 1-6 years in specific communities

AIM

To measure individual and environmental risk factors predicting reported child injuries.

METHODS

A prospective, follow-up study was performed including 380 parents of children aged 1-6 years, living in various communities throughout Israel. Parents were interviewed three times, 3 months apart. Injuries were defined as including minor injuries that required parental attention and medically attended injuries: doctor or nurse visit, emergency medical services or hospitalisation. Parents reported the level of safety for both indoor and outdoor environments, covering 11 items pertaining to safety elements dedicated to prevent child injury. Socio-demographic and parents' attitudes towards child injury were also measured.

RESULTS

During the 6-month follow-up period, 37% of parents reported that their child was injured, and 29% of them received medical attention. Reported outdoor safety environment was found to be a predictor of child injury, suggesting that the risk of child injury is higher among children living in unsafe outdoor environments. However, this depended on levels of religiosity (with an odds ratio of 2.48 and 95% confidence interval of 1.09-5.64 for traditional families and an odds ratio of 3.65 and 95% confidence interval of 1.58-8.46 for religious families).

CONCLUSIONS

Safe environments play a major role in decreasing the risk of injury among children. In order to decrease injury rates among young children, attention should be given to the immediate outdoor environment in which children grow up and play. Decision makers might particularly want to pay closer attention to the influence of religious backgrounds on child safety through safe environments.

Road traffic injuries to children during the school commute in Hyderabad, India: cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND

India is motorising rapidly. With increasing motorisation, road traffic injuries are predicted to increase. A third of a billion children travel to school every day in India, but little is known about children's safety during the school commute. We investigated road traffic injury to children during school journeys.

METHODS

We conducted a cross-sectional survey in Hyderabad using a two-stage stratified cluster sampling design. We used school travel questionnaires to record any road injury in the past 12 months that resulted in at least 1 day of school missed or required treatment by a doctor or nurse. We estimated the prevalence of road injury by usual mode of travel and distance to school.

RESULTS

The total sample was 5842 children, of whom 5789 (99.1%) children answered the question on road injury. The overall prevalence of self-reported road injury in the last 12 months during school journeys was 17% (95% CI 12.9% to 21.7%). A higher proportion of boys (25%) reported a road injury than girls (11%). There was a strong association between road injury, travel mode and distance to school. Children who cycled to school were more likely to be injured compared with children who walked (OR 1.5; 95% CI 1.2 to 2.0). Travel by school bus was safer than walking (OR 0.5; 95% CI 0.3 to 0.9).

CONCLUSIONS

A sixth of the children reported a road traffic injury in the past 12 months during school journeys in Hyderabad. Injury prevention interventions should focus on making walking and cycling safer for children.