CHILD
INJURIES IN BANGLADESH: A MAJOR PUBLIC HEALTH PROBLEM
Rahman
F, Kabir ARML, Barua PC, Rahman A
Institute
of Child and Mother Health, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Objectives: To ascertain the
incidence of injury morbidity and mortality in both urban and rural
children and hence to determine the magnitude of child injury problem in
Bangladesh.
Methods: A population-based survey
was conducted in two subdistricts from two randomly selected districts of
Bangladesh. A total of 21443 mothers/head of households were interviewed
regarding the occurrence of any injury morbidity or mortality in their
families. Ten trained data collectors were involved in data collection by
face to face interview with the help of three pretested questionnaire.
Results: It has been estimated that
each year about 25,000 children died from only injuries in Bangladesh. Half
of thease children are of age group less than 5 years. The estimated crude
child injury morbidity rate was 313 per 1000 children years. Proportional
Injury morbidity in the children was found 17.4%. The proportional
mortality for child injuries was 12.4%. Estimated overall deaths from
injury was 48 per 100,000 children per year. (Table
1)
Table
1: Age specific injury death rate among children in Bangladesh during 2000
|
Age
group
|
No. of
injury deaths
|
Injury
death rate per 100,000 children -years (95% CI)
|
|
|
Male
|
Female
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
Significance
|
Total
|
|
0-4 yrs
|
53
|
7
|
60
|
158
|
117-199
|
20
|
5-35
|
+
|
87
|
65-109
|
|
5-9 yrs
|
14
|
4
|
15
|
35
|
17-53
|
11
|
1-22
|
-
|
20
|
10-30
|
|
10-14 yrs
|
11
|
6
|
17
|
37
|
15-59
|
24
|
5-43
|
-
|
31
|
16-46
|
|
Total
|
78
|
17
|
95
|
76
|
61-91
|
18
|
10-26
|
+
|
48
|
38-58
|
Conclusions: There is an urgent
need to launch injury prevention programme to curb the child injury problem
in Bangladesh.