Profiling the ethnic characteristics of domestic injuries in children younger than age 5 years.

Creator(s)

Tolulope A. Oyetunji, Children's Mercy HospitalFollow
Adrienne A. Stevenson
Aderonke O. Oyetunji
Sharon K. OngutiFollow
Sarah A. Ames
Adil H. Haider
Benedict C. Nwomeh

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1-2012

Identifier

PMCID: PMC3684159

Abstract

The home remains a very common location for deadly injuries among children younger than 5 years. The aim of this study is to describe the demographic and injury characteristics of domestic injuries in children younger than 5 years. The National Trauma Data Bank's National Sample Program data set was queried for children younger than 5 years with the injury site classified as home. Bivariate analysis was performed to determine unadjusted differences by ethnicity. Appropriate weight was applied to the sample to determine accurate national estimates. A total of 7,364 children, representing 32,033 children, were analyzed. Overall mortality was 1.6 per cent. Among whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans, intentional injuries accounted for 6.5, 12.8, 10.2, 5.2, and 19.0 per cent of all injuries by intent, respectively (P < 0.003). Burn injury was disproportionately higher in blacks (24.1%) followed by Native Americans and Asians (15.3 and 11.5%, P = 0.008). On multivariate analysis, black ethnicity was associated with increased length of stay. Intentional injuries were significantly higher in blacks and Native Americans with black patients sustaining a disproportionately higher proportion of burn injury. Therefore, greater attention is needed to provide more effective home safety interventions to children among high-risk ethnic groups.

Journal Title

The American surgeon

Volume

78

Issue

4

First Page

426

Last Page

431

MeSH Keywords

Accidents; Home; Child; Preschool; Continental Population Groups; Databases; Factual; Ethnic Groups; Female; Health Status Disparities; Humans; Infant; Injury Severity Score; Length of Stay; Male; Multivariate Analysis; Retrospective Studies; United States; Wounds and Injuries

Keywords

Accidents; Children; Ethnic Groups; Race; Domestic injuries

Comments

Publisher's version at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/sesc/tas/2012/00000078/00000004/art00032

Recommended Citation

Oyetunji, T. A., Stevenson, A. A., Oyetunji, A. O., Onguti, S. K., Ames, S. A., Haider, A. H., Nwomeh, B. C. Profiling the ethnic characteristics of domestic injuries in children younger than age 5 years. The American surgeon 78, 426-431 (2012).