Incidence and patterns of registered injuries among children in Ongkharak District, Nakhon Nayok, Thailand

Abstract

Objective: To describe the pattern of injury incidence and to illustrate the magnitude and the burden of childhood injury in an agricultural area in Thailand. Material and Method: A retrospective descriptive study of new registered injury cases was conducted in a Ongkharak District, Nakhon Nayok Province, Thailand, including the population of 12,017 aged of 0-14 years. Data were collected for one year period from September 2006-August 2007 from medical records from 6 hospitals in the province and 14 health centers in the district, including death certificates from local authority vital registration were reviewed over the period of one year. The ICD-10 was used for injury classification. Proportions with 95% confidence intervals were estimated. Results: There were 1,098 records of injuries during one year of the study. Annual incidence rate of of injury was found to be 90.5 per 1,000 population (95%CI: 85.4-95.7) with the mortality rate of 24.96 per 100,000 population (95%CI: -3.28-53.2). About 5% of the injured children need hospital admission and 0.3% of injures are fatal. The injuries are common in the age groups of 4-12 years. Injuries in boys are 1.5 time more common than those in girls. Common causes of injuries are non-animate and animate forces, falls and transportations. Conclusion: The findings from this community-wide study could be a baseline information for comparisons within this community and other agriculture-based area and also for developing preventive measures to reduce injury and the burden.