Factors Associated With Fall Injury At Home Among Children Under 5 Years Old In Yemen

ABSTRACT

Falls are the most common injury causing death or long term disability particularly among children. This study aimed to identify the risk factors of the unintentional injuries due to falls in children aged less than five years in Yemen. This cross sectional study enrolled a total of 439 children under five years old from the emergency department of 6 hospitals in Sana'a city. Multistage sampling was used to select six hospitals from public and private sectors in Sana'a city. Face to face interviews were conducted by using a structured questionnaire. Simple logistic regression and multiple logistic regression were used in the analysis. The prevalence of falls among children under five years old was 21.2%. In the multivariate analysis, factors associated with falls among children were young mother (aOR= 0.9, 95% CI 0.81-0.91), working of mother (aOR= 4.5 95% CI 2.40-7.65), frequent family social gatherings (aOR= 2.7, 95% CI 1.54-4.61), number of children at home (aOR= 2.6, 95% CI 1.43-4.64), chewing khat by father (aOR= 2.4, 95% CI 1.38-4.10), presence of staircase in the house (aOR= 2.1, 95% CI 1.24-3.70), number of rooms at home (aOR= 2.2, 95% CI 1.17-3.99) and disabled children (aOR= 3.3, 95% CI 1.20-9.27). In the study, socio-economic and cultural factors such as family gathering and chewing khat were associated with home fall injury among children under 5 years old in Yemen. Health promotion program should take place to reduce the occurrence of fall injury.