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Injury patterns in children with frequent emergency department visits
1National Institute of Public Health, Denmark, Øster Farimagsgade 5, DK-1399 Copenhagen K, Denmark. bla@niph.dk
Insights
Children with frequent emergency department (ED) visits experience more superficial injuries and sprains, but fewer fractures. This suggests less severe injury patterns contribute to repeated ED use in pediatric populations.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
- Injury Epidemiology
- Public Health
Background:
- Frequent emergency department (ED) visits in children warrant investigation into underlying injury patterns.
- Understanding these patterns can inform targeted injury prevention strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare injury characteristics between children with frequent (≥5) and infrequent (1) ED visits.
- To identify potential causes for recurrent ED utilization in pediatric populations.
Main Methods:
- A retrospective cohort study of 579,721 Danish children across three age groups (0-2, 6-8, 12-14 years).
- Data on ED visits, injury type, accident circumstances, and admission status were extracted from the Danish National Patient Registry over three years.
- Comparison of injury patterns between frequent and infrequent ED visitors.
Main Results:
- Children with frequent ED visits showed a higher incidence of superficial injuries (0-46% more) and dislocations, sprains, and strains (25-82% more).
- Conversely, fractures were less common (20-30% fewer) among frequent visitors.
- Fewer hospital admissions were recorded for children with frequent ED visits (15-51% fewer).
Conclusions:
- Pediatric patients with multiple ED visits tend to sustain less severe injuries.
- Recurrent ED use is associated with a higher proportion of sprains, strains, and superficial injuries rather than severe trauma.
Objectives:
To compare injury patterns in children with many and few emergency department (ED) visits in order to reveal the causes for the frequent visits.
Methods:
Three cohorts of Danish children (total 579 721 children) were followed for three years when their ages were 0-2, 6-8, and 12-14 years. Information on all ED visits was obtained from the Danish National Patient Registry. Injury type, place of accident, injury mechanism, admission, and distance to ED were compared between children with frequent ED visits (five or more during the three years) and children with only one visit.
Results:
Children with frequent visits had a different injury pattern with 0-46% more superficial injuries and 25-82% more dislocations, sprains, and strains. There was 20-30% fewer fractures and 12% fewer falls from a higher level. 15-51% fewer were admitted.
Conclusions:
Children with many ED visits had less severe injuries and more dislocations, sprains, and strains.
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