The incidence of childhood and adolescent injuries and their outcome: a population-based study

A study of injuries was carried out among 123,630 Jewish children aged 0-17 in the city of Jerusalem. A 25% sample of emergency room (ER) visits to the four hospitals and the first-aid station and all hospitalizations and deaths were studied from 1 January to 31 December 1986. The incidence of visits to the ER was 980.7/10,000 child-years [confidence intervals (CI) = 963.3-998.3/10,000 child-years]. The rate of hospitalizations was 24.5/10,000 child-years (CI = 21.8-27.4/10,000 child-years). The death rate was 0.6/10,000 (CI = 0.2-1.2/10,000). For each case of death there were 43 hospitalizations and 1,732 visits to the ER. Twice as many boys as girls visited the ER and 1.8 times more boys were hospitalized for childhood injuries. Falls and being struck by a blunt or shap object were the most frequent cause of injury among the ER visits. Poisonings, road accidents and burns required longer hospitalization than other causes of injury. The injury severity score ranged from 1-30 and was higher for road accidents and falls than for other causes of injury. In planning prevention and health promotion programs toddlers and adolescents should be considered as the high risk groups for intervention.