@article{ref1,
title="Pediatric falls ages 0-4: understanding demographics, mechanisms, and injury severities",
journal="Injury epidemiology",
year="2018",
author="Chaudhary, Sofia and Figueroa, Janet and Shaikh, Salah and Mays, Elizabeth Williams and Bayakly, Rana and Javed, Mahwish and Smith, Matthew Lee and Moran, Tim P. and Rupp, Jonathan and Nieb, Sharon",
volume="5",
number="Suppl 1",
pages="e7-e7",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Pediatric unintentional falls are the leading cause of injury-related emergency visits for children < 5 years old. The purpose of this study was to identify population characteristics, injury mechanisms, and injury severities and patterns among children < 5 years to better inform age-appropriate falls prevention strategies. <br><br>METHODS: This retrospective database study used trauma registry data from the lead pediatric trauma system in Georgia. Data were analyzed for all patients < 5 years with an international classification of disease, 9th revision, clinical modification (ICD-9 CM) external cause of injury code (E-code) for unintentional falls between 1/1/2013 and 12/31/2015. Age (months) was compared across categories of demographic variables, injury mechanisms, and emergency department (ED) disposition using Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA and the Mann Whitney U test. The relationships between demographic variables, mechanism of injury (MOI), and Injury Severity Score (ISS) were evaluated using multinomial logistic regression. <br><br>RESULTS: Inclusion criteria were met by 1086 patients (median age = 28 months; 59.7% male; 53.8% White; 49.1% <  1 m fall height). Younger children, < 1-year-old, primarily fell from caregiver's arms, bed, or furniture, while older children sustained more falls from furniture and playgrounds. Children who fell from playground equipment were older (median = 49 months, p < 0.01) than those who fell from the bed (median = 10 months), stairs (median = 18 months), or furniture (median = 19 months). Children < 1 year had the highest proportion of head injuries including skull fracture (63.1%) and intracranial hemorrhage (65.5%), 2-year-old children had the highest proportion of femur fractures (32.9%), and 4-year-old children had the highest proportion of humerus fractures (41.0%). Medicaid patients were younger (median = 24.5 months, p < 0.01) than private payer (median = 34 months). Black patients were younger (median = 20.5 months, p < 0.001) than White patients (median = 29 months). <br><br>RESULTS from multinomial logistic regression models suggest that as age increases, odds of a severe ISS (16-25) decreased (OR = 0.95, CI = 0.93-0.97). <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric unintentional falls are a significant burden of injury for children < 5 years. Future work will use these risk and injury profiles to inform current safety recommendations and develop evidence-based interventions for parents/caregivers and pediatric providers.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2197-1714",
doi="10.1186/s40621-018-0147-x",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40621-018-0147-x"
}