INJURY PATTERN IN CHILDREN: A POPULATION-BASED STUDY

Abstract

Background: Injuries, as a cause of mortality, morbidity and disability are relatively more important in the first half of the individual’s lifespan, and especially so in childhood and adolescence.The burden of child injuries in India is not clearly known, as injury information has not received much importance. This survey was an attempt to describe patterns of injuries among children. Design: Community based cross-sectional study. Setting: Rural and urban registered areas under department of community medicine, JNMC, Aligarh. Methods: A standard questionnaire was administered to guardians of 91 of these children to elicit information on the etiology of the injury, demographic and socioeconomic details. Results: Study results revealed that children aged 6-15 years (19%) suffered more injury than children under 5 years age group (14%).Under five year old children were found to be more prone to fall (32.4%) and struck/hit by person or object (32.4%) as compared to children aged 6-15 years. Injuries due to fire/flames or heat (8.8%) were found to be more in children in under 5 years age group as compared to other group. The most common sites affected in under five children were head, face and neck (35.3%) and lower limb (35.3%) with equal frequency followed by upper extremity (30%). Furthermore, 89.8% of study subject had minor severity of injuries. Conclusions: To prevent injury successful prevention strategies should include multifaceted approaches.