Skip to main content
PMC home page
Injury Prevention logoLink to Injury Prevention
. 2003 Sep;9(3):235–240. doi: 10.1136/ip.9.3.235

Identification of risk factors for non-fatal child injury in a rural area: Keokuk County Rural Health Study

D Nordstrom 1, C Zwerling 1, A Stromquist 1, L Burmeister 1, J Merchant 1
PMCID: PMC1730996  PMID: 12966012

Abstract

Objective: To identify risk factors for non-fatal injury among rural children.

Design: Cross sectional health interview survey, 1994–98.

Setting: A rural Iowa county, not adjacent to a metropolitan area.

Subjects: Stratified, random sample of households, including all resident children and adults.

Main outcome measures: Injury episodes in the past 12 months among children aged 0–17 years and the parental and child characteristics associated with these episodes.

Results: Of the 621 children in participating households, 137 or 22.1% were injured during the past 12 months. Children age 5–17 on a sports team were 1.88 times (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07 to 3.31) more likely than other children to be injured. Children age 12–17 who binge drink were 3.50 times (95% CI 1.31 to 9.50) more likely than other children to be injured. Compared with children not on sports teams, girls on teams were 2.26 times (95% CI 1.02 to 5.13) more likely while boys on teams were 1.60 times (95% CI 0.71 to 3.68) more likely to have an injury episode. Compared with children who did not binge drink, girls binge drinking were 8.11 times (95% CI 1.52 to 43.33) more likely while boys binge drinking were 2.19 times (95% CI 0.70 to 6.84) more likely to have an injury episode.

Conclusions: Local studies such as this can provide useful clues regarding the etiology of injury. Some known and some new potential risk factors including behavioral aspects for childhood non-fatal injury in a very rural area were investigated. It is planned to address these cross sectional findings in future longitudinal follow up of this population.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (74.9 KB).

Selected References

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

  1. Alexander C. S., Ensminger M. E., Somerfield M. R., Kim Y. J., Johnson K. E. Behavioral risk factors for injury among rural adolescents. Am J Epidemiol. 1992 Sep 15;136(6):673–685. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a116547. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Alexander C. S., Somerfield M. R., Ensminger M. E., Kim Y. J., Johnson K. E. Gender differences in injuries among rural youth. Inj Prev. 1995 Mar;1(1):15–20. doi: 10.1136/ip.1.1.15. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bijur P. E., Kurzon M., Overpeck M. D., Scheidt P. C. Parental alcohol use, problem drinking, and children's injuries. JAMA. 1992 Jun 17;267(23):3166–3171. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Braun B. L., Gerberich S. G., Sidney S. Injury events: utility of self report in retrospective identification in the USA. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1994 Dec;48(6):604–605. doi: 10.1136/jech.48.6.604. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Buchsbaum D. G., Buchanan R. G., Centor R. M., Schnoll S. H., Lawton M. J. Screening for alcohol abuse using CAGE scores and likelihood ratios. Ann Intern Med. 1991 Nov 15;115(10):774–777. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-115-10-774. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Ewing J. A. Detecting alcoholism. The CAGE questionnaire. JAMA. 1984 Oct 12;252(14):1905–1907. doi: 10.1001/jama.252.14.1905. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Gerberich S. G., Gibson R. W., French L. R., Renier C. M., Lee T. Y., Carr W. P., Shutske J. Injuries among children and youth in farm households: Regional Rural Injury Study-I. Inj Prev. 2001 Jun;7(2):117–122. doi: 10.1136/ip.7.2.117. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Hambidge Simon J., Davidson Arthur J., Gonzales Ralph, Steiner John F. Epidemiology of pediatric injury-related primary care office visits in the United States. Pediatrics. 2002 Apr;109(4):559–565. doi: 10.1542/peds.109.4.559. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Harel Y., Overpeck M. D., Jones D. H., Scheidt P. C., Bijur P. E., Trumble A. C., Anderson J. The effects of recall on estimating annual nonfatal injury rates for children and adolescents. Am J Public Health. 1994 Apr;84(4):599–605. doi: 10.2105/ajph.84.4.599. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Kessler R. C., McGonagle K. A., Zhao S., Nelson C. B., Hughes M., Eshleman S., Wittchen H. U., Kendler K. S. Lifetime and 12-month prevalence of DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders in the United States. Results from the National Comorbidity Survey. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1994 Jan;51(1):8–19. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.1994.03950010008002. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Kohout F. J., Berkman L. F., Evans D. A., Cornoni-Huntley J. Two shorter forms of the CES-D (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression) depression symptoms index. J Aging Health. 1993 May;5(2):179–193. doi: 10.1177/089826439300500202. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Landen D. D., Hendricks S. Effect of recall on reporting of at-work injuries. Public Health Rep. 1995 May-Jun;110(3):350–354. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Lenaway D. D., Ambler A. G., Beaudoin D. E. The epidemiology of school-related injuries: new perspectives. Am J Prev Med. 1992 May-Jun;8(3):193–198. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Merchant James A., Stromquist Ann M., Kelly Kevin M., Zwerling Craig, Reynolds Stephen J., Burmeister Leon F. Chronic disease and injury in an agricultural county: The Keokuk County Rural Health Cohort Study. J Rural Health. 2002 Fall;18(4):521–535. doi: 10.1111/j.1748-0361.2002.tb00919.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Overpeck M. D., Jones D. H., Trumble A. C., Scheidt P. C., Bijur P. E. Socioeconomic and racial/ethnic factors affecting non-fatal medically attended injury rates in US children. Inj Prev. 1997 Dec;3(4):272–276. doi: 10.1136/ip.3.4.272. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Peterson L., Brown D. Integrating child injury and abuse-neglect research: common histories, etiologies, and solutions. Psychol Bull. 1994 Sep;116(2):293–315. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.116.2.293. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Powell-Griner E., Anderson J. E., Murphy W. State-and sex-specific prevalence of selected characteristics--behavioral risk factor surveillance system, 1994 and 1995. MMWR CDC Surveill Summ. 1997 Aug 1;46(3):1–31. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Powell J. W., Barber-Foss K. D. Sex-related injury patterns among selected high school sports. Am J Sports Med. 2000 May-Jun;28(3):385–391. doi: 10.1177/03635465000280031801. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Riley A. W., Harris S. K., Ensminger M. E., Ryan S., Alexander C., Green B., Starfield B. Behavior and injury in urban and rural adolescents. Inj Prev. 1996 Dec;2(4):266–273. doi: 10.1136/ip.2.4.266. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Rivara F. P. Developmental and behavioral issues in childhood injury prevention. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 1995 Oct;16(5):362–370. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Rose G. Sick individuals and sick populations. Int J Epidemiol. 1985 Mar;14(1):32–38. doi: 10.1093/ije/14.1.32. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Scheidt P. C., Harel Y., Trumble A. C., Jones D. H., Overpeck M. D., Bijur P. E. The epidemiology of nonfatal injuries among US children and youth. Am J Public Health. 1995 Jul;85(7):932–938. doi: 10.2105/ajph.85.7.932. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Smith G. S., Branas C. C., Miller T. R. Fatal nontraffic injuries involving alcohol: A metaanalysis. Ann Emerg Med. 1999 Jun;33(6):659–668. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Weaver Nancy L., Marshall Stephen W., Miller Mark D. Preventing sports injuries: opportunities for intervention in youth athletics. Patient Educ Couns. 2002 Mar;46(3):199–204. doi: 10.1016/s0738-3991(01)00213-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Zwerling C., Sprince N. L., Wallace R. B., Davis C. S., Whitten P. S., Heeringa S. G. Effect of recall period on the reporting of occupational injuries among older workers in the Health and Retirement Study. Am J Ind Med. 1995 Nov;28(5):583–590. doi: 10.1002/ajim.4700280503. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Injury Prevention are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES