A Canadian picture of maternal reports of childhood injuries

This study examines gender and age differences in maternal reports of injuries in a cross sectional group of children aged 0-11 years. The cause, nature, body part injured, and location of injury are explored, as are the associations with family socioeconomic indicators and associations with limitations in activities. In addition, we report patterns of health care use for injured and non-injured children by examining contacts with a variety of medical health care professionals by child age group and gender. Data for 22,831 children and their families were used from cycle 1 of the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) collected in 1995. Descriptive analyses and chi-squared tests for trends were used to examine injury variations by child gender and age. Logistic regressions were used to examine the relationship between socioeconomic indicators and injury, and associations between injury and limitations in activities. Descriptive statistics and logistic regressions were used to examine the relationship between injury status and contact with various health care professionals. Linear regressions were also used to examine associations between injury status and average number of health care contacts. Results showed that, consistent with findings based on hospital data, boys experience more injuries than girls and injuries increase with age of child. Falls are the most common sources of maternally reported injuries followed by environmental hazards for young children and sports injuries for school aged children. The majority of injuries occur in or around the home for young children and at school for older children. For maternal reports of non-severe injures, single marital status is a risk factor for boys. In addition, maternal reported childhood injuries are associated with increased use of health care services by various health care professionals and overnight hospitalizations. This pattern is consistent for infants and toddlers, preschoolers and school aged children, and remains consistent across both genders. In conclusion, maternally reported injuries occur in 10% of Canadian children and many of these result in limitations of activities. Preventive strategies should take both child age and child gender into consideration. Children who suffer from injuries are more likely to have contacts and more numerous visits with a variety of health care professionals as well as overnight hospitalizations. These results demonstrate the importance of examining injuries treated at home or those that are untreated in addition to injuries treated in hospitals and emergency rooms.