Childhood unintentional injury: The impact of family income, education level, occupation status, and other measures of socioeconomic status. A systematic review

Abstract

Introduction Unintentional injuries represent a substantial public health burden among children and adolescents, and previous evidence suggests that there are disparities in injury by socioeconomic status (SES). This paper reports on a systematic review of literature on injury rates among children and adolescents by measures of SES. Methods A systematic literature search was conducted using six electronic databases: MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, HealthSTAR, EMBASE, and SportsDiscus. This review considered children ages 19 years and under and publications between 1997 and 2017—representing an update since the last systematic review examined this specific question. Fifty-four articles were summarized based on study and participant descriptions, outcome and exposure, statistical tests used, effect estimates, and overall significance. Results Most articles addressed risk factors across all injury mechanisms; however, some focused particularly on burns/scalds, road traffic injuries, falls/drowning cases, and playground/sports injuries. Other studies reported on specific injury types including traumatic dental injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and fractures. The studies were of moderate quality, with a median of 15.5 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 15.34 to 15.66) out of 19. Thirty-two studies found an inverse association between SES and childhood unintentional injury, three found a positive association while twenty were not significant or failed to report effect measures. Conclusion Given the variability in definition of the exposure (SES) and outcome (injury), the results of this review were mixed; however, the majority of studies supported a relationship between low SES and increased injury risk. Public health practice must consider SES, and other measures of health equity, in childhood injury prevention programming, and policy.

Troublesome behaviour and traumatic dental injuries during adolescence

“…Consistent with evidence from systematic reviews on risk factors for TDIs, 30,31 the results also indicate that certain population sub-groups might be at greater risk of experiencing TDIs. Male adolescents and those living in families with low SEP had greater odds of having TDIs than their corresponding counterparts.…”

Incidence and Risk Factor of Unintentional Fall Related Injuries Among Children in Tamil Nadu, India

“…Falls are the most common unintentional injuries that occur in a community. [11][12][13] This study reports 9.1% incidence of unintentional fall injuries in Tamil Nadu which is higher than the study done by Ashish Pathak 14 in Madhya Pradesh and Gupta S 15 in Nepal which showed 7.7% and 5.2% of incidence this might be due to geographical variation. In a study by Mohan et al 16 in Haryana revealed more incidence of unintentional fall injuries which might be due to the selection of participants boys were more than girls.…”

Scoping review of children’s and youth’s outdoor play publications in Canada

“…The number of publications on outdoor play in Canada increased considerably since the publication of the Position Statement on Active Outdoor Play Many of the reviews identified in this scoping review [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] focussed primarily on physical health outcomes. Several [30][31][32][33][34][35][36]40 also explored the social and environmental health benefits of outdoor play for children and youth; this is encouraging given the importance of building a connection to the land at a young age for fostering lifelong environmental stewardship and promoting action to mitigate climate change. 43,44 Given the relative novelty of outdoor play research in Canada, it is also not surprising that cross-sectional studies were the most common study design as these studies are a crucial first step in understanding the state of outdoor play across Canada.…”