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Preventing child unintentional injury deaths: prioritizing the response to the New Zealand Child and Adolescent
Mike Shepherd1, Bridget Kool, Shanthi Ameratunga
1Children's Emergency Department, Starship Hospital, Auckland District Health Board; Department of Paediatrics, University of Auckland, New Zealand School of Population Health, University of Auckland, New Zealand General Practitioner, Auckland, New Zealand Institute of Public Policy, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand Starship Trauma Service, Starship Hospital, Auckland District Health Board. New Zealand Safekids New Zealand Children's Emergency Department, Starship Hospital, Auckland District Health Board; Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Insights
New Zealand (NZ) can reduce child injury deaths by adopting effective policies, particularly for motor vehicle occupant, pedestrian, and drowning incidents. Implementing evidence-based strategies can significantly lower child mortality and morbidity rates.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Injury Prevention Science
- Child Safety Policy
Background:
- Child unintentional injury remains a significant public health concern globally.
- Effective injury prevention policies are crucial for reducing child mortality and morbidity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare New Zealand's child unintentional injury prevention policies with European countries.
- To develop evidence-based recommendations for child injury prevention in New Zealand.
Main Methods:
- Calculated and ranked unintentional child injury death rates by external cause.
- Compared New Zealand's policy domain scores to European benchmarks.
- Identified policy priorities based on injury burden and intervention utilization.
Main Results:
- Motor vehicle occupant deaths (49%) are the leading cause of child unintentional injury mortality in NZ.
- New Zealand ranks 15th out of 25 European countries in child injury prevention policy.
- Key policy and legislative actions for injury prevention are not yet implemented in NZ.
Conclusions:
- Evidence-based injury prevention policies and legislation can effectively target major causes of child mortality in NZ.
- Implementing recommended policies can significantly reduce child injury mortality and morbidity in New Zealand.
Objective:
To develop recommendations for child unintentional injury prevention by comparing New Zealand's child unintentional injury mortality and injury prevention policies with those of European countries.
Methods:
Unintentional child injury death rates based on external cause of injury were calculated and ranked. NZ's score for each of the 12 domains (based on external causes of injury) from the New Zealand Child and Adolescent Report Card was compared to European scoring. Policy priorities are identified by domains where mortality makes up a high proportion of overall child unintentional injury mortality (high burden of injury) and where report card score for that domain is low in comparison to other countries (under-utilisation of effective interventions).
Results:
Death as a motor vehicle occupant accounts for 49% of all child unintentional injury deaths, followed by pedestrian (10%) and drowning deaths (8%). The overall score for the 12 policy domains of the NZ Report Card ranks NZ as 15(th) among the 25 European countries. There are important policy and legislative actions which NZ has not implemented.
Conclusions:
A number of evidence-based injury prevention policy and legislative actions are available that could target areas of greatest childhood injury mortality in NZ.
Implications:
A set of injury prevention policy and legislation priorities are presented which, if implemented, would result in a significant reduction in the injury mortality and morbidity rates of NZ children.
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