Incidence and pattern of burn injuries among children with disabilities

Burn injuries are an important cause of severe morbidity and mortality among children. However, the epidemiology of burns among disabled children has received little attention.

Burn injuries were identified for children aged less than 12 years using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes in Ohio Medicaid claims data. Using FY2002 Ohio Medicaid claims data, incidences and relative risks of burn injuries for disabled and nondisabled children were calculated by age, gender, and race or ethnicity. Logistic regression was used to analyze risk factors for burn injuries.

There were 4,307 burn injuries identified in the FY2002 Ohio Medicaid claims database. The incidence of burn injuries for disabled children was significantly higher than for nondisabled children (103.00 per 10,000 vs. 77.41 per 10,000, respectively; p < 0.001). Children aged 1 or 2 years had the highest incidence of burn injuries, regardless of disability status. For disabled children, the incidence of burn injuries decreased after 2 years of age and leveled out at approximately 100 per 10,000 children after 3 years of age. However, for nondisabled children, the incidence of burn injuries decreased until 6 years of age, after which it leveled out at approximately 40 per 10,000 children. After controlling for potentially confounding factors, the risk of burn injuries was significantly higher for disabled than nondisabled children (odds ratio = 1.80; 95% confidence interval, 1.50-2.17).

Disabled children had a significantly higher incidence of burn injuries than nondisabled children did. The risk of burn injuries, even after controlling for demographic factors, was significantly higher for disabled children than nondisabled children.