Accidents in childhood: from epidemiology to prevention

The overwhelming importance of accidental injuries, deaths and disabilities in children and adolescents is no longer a "privilege" of the industrialized world: many developing countries are now facing a tremendous increase in accidents in the young. A sound epidemiological knowledge of accidents is a prerequisite for any preventive programme: it is based on hospital or community surveys, in which the epidemiological approach seems more meaningful than the clinical one. The conditions to be fulfilled are reviewed in the light of several WHO publications. Finally, some preventive strategies are presented, based on models more and more currently used in planning for prevention. The role of paediatricians, either individually or through their professional associations, is emphasized.