Skip to main content
PMC home page
The British Journal of General Practice logoLink to The British Journal of General Practice
. 1993 Apr;43(369):159–163.

Accidents among children under five years old: a general practice based study in north Staffordshire.

Y H Carter 1, P W Jones 1
PMCID: PMC1372360  PMID: 8323803

Abstract

Information about accidental injury among children under five years old was obtained prospectively by studying children registered with one general practice (total list size 9425) who presented at the surgery and/or the accident and emergency department at the North Staffordshire Hospital Centre during a 12 month period. Details were obtained from answers to a questionnaire sent to parents within two weeks of a child's accident. Of 511 children under five years of age, 100 children (57 boys, 43 girls) had 120 accidents. The maximum number of accidents occurred in the second year of life. Parents took their children directly to the casualty department in 105 (85%) accidents. Eighty six children had only one accident and four children required hospital admission. The most common cause of injury was a fall (56%). The majority of accidents happened at home (79%), and occurred between 09.00 hours and 21.00 hours (88%). Children identified in the study following an accident were matched with other children in the practice of the same age and sex who had not had an accident. Information about the families and social factors were compared. Children who had accidents had younger mothers and were more likely to have a sibling who had had an accident in the previous year. Socioeconomic factors were not significantly different between the cases and the controls. Similar numbers of families in the study and control groups had items of safety equipment and had good awareness and knowledge of accident prevention. The results of this study cast doubt on the value of safety equipment and knowledge alone in child accident prevention.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Full text

PDF
159

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Agass M., Mant D., Fuller A., Coulter A., Jones L. Childhood accidents: a practice survey using general practitioners' records and parental reports. Br J Gen Pract. 1990 May;40(334):202–205. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bannon M. J., Carter Y. H., Mason K. T. Causes of fatal childhood accidents in North Staffordshire, 1980-1989. Arch Emerg Med. 1992 Dec;9(4):357–366. doi: 10.1136/emj.9.4.357. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Carter Y. H., Bannon M. J., Jones P. W. Health visitors and child accident prevention. Health Visit. 1992 Apr;65(4):115–117. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Eminson C. J., Jones H., Goldacre M. Repetition of accidents in young children. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1986 Jun;40(2):170–173. doi: 10.1136/jech.40.2.170. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Golding J. Accidents in the under fives. Health Visit. 1983 Aug;56(8):293–294. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Husband P. The accident-prone child. Practitioner. 1973 Sep;211(263):335–344. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Inwald A. C. A comparison of self-referred patients to accident and emergency departments between an urban district and a rural district. J R Coll Gen Pract. 1980 Apr;30(213):220–223. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Jarman B. Identification of underprivileged areas. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1983 May 28;286(6379):1705–1709. doi: 10.1136/bmj.286.6379.1705. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Jarman B. Underprivileged areas: validation and distribution of scores. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1984 Dec 8;289(6458):1587–1592. doi: 10.1136/bmj.289.6458.1587. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Miller R. E., Reisinger K. S., Blatter M. M., Wucher F. Pediatric counseling and subsequent use of smoke detectors. Am J Public Health. 1982 Apr;72(4):392–393. doi: 10.2105/ajph.72.4.392. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Reilly P. M. Primary care and accident and emergency departments in an urban area. J R Coll Gen Pract. 1981 Apr;31(225):223–230. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Sellar C., Ferguson J. A., Goldacre M. J. Occurrence and repetition of hospital admissions for accidents in preschool children. BMJ. 1991 Jan 5;302(6767):16–19. doi: 10.1136/bmj.302.6767.16. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Sharples P. M., Storey A., Aynsley-Green A., Eyre J. A. Causes of fatal childhood accidents involving head injury in northern region, 1979-86. BMJ. 1990 Nov 24;301(6762):1193–1197. doi: 10.1136/bmj.301.6762.1193. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Sibert J. R. Accidents to children: the doctor's role. Education or environmental change? Arch Dis Child. 1991 Jul;66(7):890–893. doi: 10.1136/adc.66.7.890. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Sibert J. R., Maddocks G. B., Brown B. M. Childhood accidents--an endemic of epidemic proportion. Arch Dis Child. 1981 Mar;56(3):225–227. doi: 10.1136/adc.56.3.225. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Singh S. Self referral to accident and emergency department: patients' perceptions. BMJ. 1988 Nov 5;297(6657):1179–1180. doi: 10.1136/bmj.297.6657.1179. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Stewart-Brown S., Peters T. J., Golding J., Bijur P. Case definition in childhood accident studies: a vital factor in determining results. Int J Epidemiol. 1986 Sep;15(3):352–359. doi: 10.1093/ije/15.3.352. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The British Journal of General Practice are provided here courtesy of Royal College of General Practitioners

RESOURCES