Rates of Pediatric Injuries by 3-Month Intervals for Children 0 to 3 Years of Age

Abstract

We departed from usual groupings of E-codes and devised groupings that would be reflective of age-related developmental characteristics. Differences in rates by narrow age groups for young children can be related to developmental achievements, w can be related to developmental achievements, which place the child at risk for specific causes of injury. We found marked variability in both rates and leading causes of injury by 3-month interval age groupings that were masked by year of age analyses. Children aged 15 to 17 months had the highest overall injury rate before age 15 years. This coincides with developmental achievements such as independent mobility, exploratory behavior, and hand-to-mouth activity. The child is able to access hazards but has not yet developed cognitive hazard awareness and avoidance skills. A remarkable finding was the high rate of battering injury among infants 0 to 5 months, suggesting the need to address potential child maltreatment in the perinatal period. Poisoning was the second major leading cause of injury; more than two thirds were medication. Cultural factors may influence views of medications, storage practices, use of poison control system telephone advice, and risk of toddler poisoning. The pedestrian injury rate doubled between 12 and 14 months and 15 and 17 months and exceeded motor vehicle occupant injury rates for each 3-month interval from 15 to 47 months. Pedestrian injury has not received sufficient attention in general and certainly not in injury prevention counseling for children younger than 4 years. Anticipatory guidance for pedestrian injury should be incorporated before 1 year of age. Effective strategies must be based on the epidemiology of childhood injury. Pediatricians and other pediatric health care providers are in a unique position to render injury prevention services to their patients. Integrating injury prevention messages in the context of developmental assessments of the child is 1 strategy. These data can also be used for complementary childhood injury prevention strategies such as early intervention programs for high-risk families for child abuse and neglect, media and advocacy campaigns, public policies, and environmental and product design.