A Preliminary Study of an Emergency Department-based In-depth Injury Surveillance System of Preschool Children Injury

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To describe the use of an emergency department (ED)-based, in-depth injury surveillance system to determine the incidence and mechanism of preschool children injury. METHODS: We prospectively studied and registered injured children under 7 years old, (n=5,921) whose injuries resulted in ED treatment from August 2006 to July 2008. We upgraded the checklist surveillance items, included place, accident mechanism, and agent factors. The ED physicians recorded the injury data on checklists in real time as they gave the ED orders. The recorded data were stored in computer networks and automatically coded, which enabled access to the raw data sources. The statistical data were calculated in detail by using relative frequency distribution from the raw data. RESULTS: A total of 29,548 injured patients visited the ED from August 2006 to July 2008. Preschool children injuries, except those from traffic accidents, were 5,921(20.0%). The most common sources of injuries were from blunt trauma (37%), slips(17%), and falls(16%). Among those admitted to our hospital, fall injuries and inhalation of foreign body accidents accounted for 7.6% and 7.5%, respectively. The larger proportion of fall injuries occurred from a height of less than 1 meter(82.2%). The frequency of injury mechanism differed according to age: fall(35%), blunt(19%), and burn(14%) were noted under 1 year old, compared to blunt(34%), fall(14%), and slip(13%) from between 1 to under 3 years of age, and blunt(37%), slip(19%), and fall (11%) between 3 to under 7 years of age. CONCLUSION: The ED-based preschool children injury surveillance system could provide a useful and efficient method to determine injury incidence and injury-related factors.