Pediatr. praxi 2019; 20(1): 12-18 | DOI: 10.36290/ped.2019.003

On the preventability of injuries and poisonings in the paediatric age group

MUDr. Josef Grym

Pediatrické oddělení nemocnice SZZ Krnov

The author reports a cohort of 1,581 children (17,7 % of all the hospitalized) admitted for injury or poisoning to the department of paediatrics during the course of six years. According to the ICD, 75 % of the cases were chapter S injuries, 17,3 % were chapter T injuries, 7,3 % chapter F, and 0,4 % involved SUDS and ALTE/BRUE; the ratio of boys to girls was 60 : 40 and the age range was from neonates to adolescents. One child died as a result of SUDS. In a retrospective analysis of medical history data, major attention was paid to the subjective involvement of the child or carer in causation of the injury. In this respect, the factors most commonly involved were negligence, inattention, insubordination, insufficient equipment, and ignorance of safety features (33,5 %); injuries during sports activities with adequate safety measures accounted for 32,1 % of the cohort. Intentional self-harm accounted for 12,9 %; unfortunate accidents were involved in 6,1 % of the injuries; assault, violence, and intentional injury in 5,2 %; and SUDS and ALTE/BRUE accounted for 0,4 % of admissions; 9,7 % of the injuries could not be classified. The results are compared with the literature, with a particular focus on possible prevention. Injuries in which preventability is an option (those in regular sports, SUDS, and ALTE/BRUE) represent 32,5 % of the cohort. The proportion of difficult-to-prevent injuries with a significant involvement of a subjective element (negligence, risk-seeking behaviours, self-harm, intentional injury) is 51,6 % of the cohort. If injuries resulting from unfortunate accidents (6,1 %) and those that cannot be specified in terms of causation (9,7 %) are added, the difficult-to-prevent and/or unpreventable injuries will then account for 67,4 % of the cohort. This fact may partly explain the lack of success in addressing injury rates among children. As the effort to influence the subjective element of injury rates is the most difficult and least effective preventive step, it remains a major challenge for all segments of the society, including the field of paediatrics.

Keywords: injuries, poisonings and violence in children, prevention, subjective element of injuries, preventability

Published: February 22, 2019  Show citation