Cochrane corner: prevention of injuries at home

Unintentional Injury, Supervision, and Discourses on Childproofing Devices

Unintentional injury prevention research focuses on parental supervision as critical to reducing toddler injury. We examine how the promotion of childproofing-as a mode of supervision-sells mothers "peace of mind" while also increasing "intensive mothering" and the "privatization of risk." Drawing on the childproofing literature and meaning centered interviews with mothers of toddlers and childproofing business owners, we argue that the connection made by these groups between childproofing and "good parenting" ultimately obscures how this form of harm reduction economically and socially individualizes responsibility for child care.

Pattern of pediatric eye injuries in Tehran, Iran

Childhood ocular trauma is a preventable cause of visual impairment and blindness worldwide. This prospective study was conducted to explore the profile of eye injuries in pediatric patients referring to a tertiary eye center in Tehran, Iran. Six hundred consecutive pediatric patients aged 17 or less who presented to emergency department of Farabi Hospital were enrolled. Age and sex of pediatric patients, time of trauma, time between trauma and presentation, place of injury, etiology of eye injury, visual acuity, and type of injury based on Birmingham Eye Trauma Terminology were collected. Mean (±SD) age of cases was 7.9 ± 4.8. Male to female ratio was 2.3:1. More than 70 % of the patients presented less than 12 h after ocular trauma. Most injuries occurred at home (57.7 %) followed by street (20.3 %). Twelve patients had visual acuity lower than 0.1 at initial visit. Projectile trauma was the most common cause (35.8 %) followed by blunt trauma (33.3 %). 86.3 % of traumatic events consisted in closed globe injuries. Parents should be involved more effectively in care and supervision of their children especially for boys, at home and on holidays.

Injuries associated with housing conditions in Europe: a burden of disease study based on 2004 injury data

BACKGROUND

The authors recently undertook a study for the World Health Organization estimating the European burden of injuries that can be attributed to remediable structural hazards in the home. Such estimates are essential for motivating injury prevention efforts as they quantify potential health gains, in terms of injuries prevented, via specific environmental interventions.

METHODS

We combined exposure estimates from existing surveys and scenarios with estimates of the exposure-risk relationship obtained from a structured review of the literature on injury in the home and housing conditions. The resulting attributable fractions were applied to burden of injury data for the WHO European Region.

RESULTS

This analysis estimated that two specific hazards, lack of window guards at second level and higher, and lack of domestic smoke detectors resulted in an estimated 7,500 deaths and 200,000 disability adjusted life years (DALYs) per year. In estimating the environmental burden of injury associated with housing, important deficiencies in injury surveillance data and related limitations in studies of injury risk attributable to the home environment were apparent. The ability to attribute proportions of the home injury burden to features of the home were correspondingly limited, leading to probable severe underestimates of the burden.

CONCLUSIONS

The burden of injury from modifiable home injury exposures is substantial. Estimating this burden in a comprehensive and accurate manner requires improvements to the scope of injury surveillance data and the evidence base regarding the effectiveness of interventions.