The injuries children sustain at home can be of a grave nature and seems to be one of the major causes that result in deaths. Researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center who had reported their findings in the recent issue of the journal Pediatrics said that preventable injuries sustained at home account for more than 2400 deaths in US every year. They have studied the results taken from the National Vital Statistics System Mortality Data of USA from the year 1985 to1997 and had looked into the causes of death in children and teens below the age of 20 years.
Their report states that 55% of the unintentional deaths of people in this age group occur due to injuries sustained when at home. Although the total number of fatal injuries decreased over the time period, the ratio of deaths due to injury sustained at home versus injury sustained elsewhere remained still quite high. The fatal injuries were highest for children in the age group of 1 to 5 years, as compared to older children. The researchers have attributed factors like below standard housings, low education levels and low-income levels as the reasons that show the increased proportion of such deaths in people of lower socio-economic background.This is the first study of its kind that takes a comprehensive look into fatal injuries sustained at home in children and teens.
Source: EurekAlert
