Unintentional injuries in children of Danish and foreign-born mothers

Unintentional injuries in children of foreign-born mothers were studied and compared with those in children of Danish-born mothers.

A population of 173,504 children living in 32 municipalities in Denmark was followed from 1998 to 2003. Detailed information on childhood unintentional injuries from hospital records was linked to register data on parents' education, country of origin, income, family type, etc. Poisson regression was used to analyse differences in injury risk between children of different origins.

We found 133,649 injuries, of which 15,389 occurred in children of foreign-born mothers. The injury rates in children of Western and non-Western origin were 0.83 (0.70-0.98) times and 0.84 (0.79- 0.90) times that of children of Danish-born mothers, respectively. The difference was largest in children of families with unemployed parents. The injury rate in girls of non-Western origin was 29% lower than in girls of Danish origin, while the rate in boys of non-Western origin was only 5% lower than in boys of Danish origin. This gender difference was particularly pronounced for sports and traffic injuries. Children of non-Western origin had a three-fold higher rate of burns caused by hot water, tea or oil than children of Danish origin.

Prevention of injuries in children of non-Western origin should especially focus on scalds from tea, oil, and hot water.