INCIDENCE OF INJURY AND ITS RISK
FACTORS IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN IN THE URBAN AREAS OF CHENGDU
WU Kangmin, XU Yonghua, LI li, et al.
Dept.
of Pediatrics, The Second University Hospital of SCU, China
Objectives: To study the status of injury
in preschool children in the urban areas of Chengdu and to find its causes
as well as intervention measures to reduce it.
Methods: Guardians of the preschool
children aged three to six years were interviewed with an open-ended
questionnaire in 11 kindergartens in the urban areas of Chengdu about the
occurrence of injury in children with a cluster sampling during 1999.
Injury was defined based on the following criteria: subcutaneous hematoma
and ecchymosis with an afflicted area larger than 1 cm×1 cm, or scratch in more than three sites, or bite with tooth
mark, diagnosed and treated in hospital or kindergarten clinics, with
emergency management by guardians and nurses of the children, and taking
leaves for half a day or more due to injury.
Results: Overall incidence of injury
was 29.28% in 2 165 children of the kindergartens, 32.29% for boys and
25.91% for girls, respectively, with a mean of 1.58 episodes of injury per
child. There was no statistically significant difference in incidence of
injury between sexes and age groups, except for the sex difference in
5-year old group. The top three causes of injury were falling, burns and
scald and collision in both sexes, and, traffic accident (ranking the fifth
in boys) and foreign body in the throat (ranking the fourth in girls) came
next. The main location where injury occurred were at home and
kindergartens. The main risk factors causing injury were collision or being
pulled down during walking, running and playing, squashed or squeezed by
heavy weight or hard material, heating, electricity, and cut and jabbed by
knifes, club, stick, toys and broken glassware, etc.
Conclusions: Incidence of injury in
preschool children can be prevented and reduced by comprehensive measures.