Background-The design of childhood injury prevention programmes is hindered by a dearth of valid and reliable information on injury frequency, cause, and outcome. A number of local injury surveillance systems have been developed to address this issue. One example is CHIRPP (Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program), which has been imported into the accident and emergency department at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow. This paper examines a year of CHIRPP data. Methods-A CHIRPP questionnaire was completed for 7940 children presenting in 1996 to the accident and emergency department with an injury or poisoning. The first part of the questionnaire was completed by the parent or accompanying adult, the second part by the clinician. These data were computerised and analysed using SPSSPC for Windows. Results-Injuries commonly occurred in the child's own home, particularly in children aged 0-4 years. These children commonly presented with bruising, ingestions, and foreign bodies. With increasing age, higher proportions of children presented with injuries occurring outside the home. These were most commonly fractures, sprains, strains, and inflammation/oedema. Seasonal variations were evident, with presentations peaking in the summer. Conclusions-There are several limitations to the current CHIRPP system in Glasgow: it is not population based, only injuries presented to the accident and emergency department are included, and injury severity is not recorded. Nevertheless, CHIRPP is a valuable source of information on patterns of childhood injury. It oVers local professionals a comprehensive dataset that may be used to develop, implement, and evaluate child injury prevention activities. (Arch Dis Child 1999;80:533-536) Keywords: injury; surveillance; accident and emergency Injury is a leading cause of death and disability in children and young people worldwide.1 2 In the UK, injuries continue be the most common cause of death and hospitalisation in children aged 5-16 years, 3 and are a significant contributor to long term disability. 4 The paucity of reliable and valid data on injury frequency, cause, and outcome has hindered the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of eVective injury prevention programmes.
6Government mortality and morbidity statistics are useful for examining trends in injury at a national level. However, these national data do not include detailed information on the injury event, and are generally insensitive to diVerences in local patterns of injury.Several local injury surveillance systems have been developed to fill this gap. One of these systems, CHIRPP (Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program), was first established in Canada in 1990 7 and imported to the accident and emergency (A&E) department at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow in 1993.8 CHIRPP is a computerised information system that collects and stores data on patients presenting with injuries or ingestions to A&E departments. The emphasis is on collecti...