Etiology and risk factors for childhood unintentional injuries: a retrospective analysis of data at a pediatric intensive care unit

Abstract:

Objective To investigate the etiology and risk factors for unintentional injuries in children admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), and to provide a basis for preventing these injuries and decreasing the mortality rate. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on the clinical data of children with unintentional injuries admitted to the PICU from December 2012 to December 2017. Results A total of 102 children with unintentional injuries were admitted to the PICU, which accounted for 3.30% (102/3087) of the overall PICU patients. The top three causes of unintentional injuries were food or drug poisoning, drowning, and foreign body ingestion and aspiration. The proportion of unintentional injuries in boys was significantly higher than in girls (P < 0.05). The younger children had a significantly higher proportion of unintentional injuries (P < 0.05). The cause of unintentional injuries was also related to age, and the common causes of unintentional injuries varied between different age groups. The proportion of unintentional injuries was not significantly different between children from urban and rural areas (P > 0.05). The logistic regression analysis showed that the number of organs with dysfunction after unintentional injuries, especially respiratory, cardiac, neurological, renal and hematological involvement, was closely associated with the mortality rate of children with unintentional injuries (P < 0.05); however, it is not an independent risk factor (P > 0.05). Conclusions Prevention is the key to decreasing the incidence of childhood unintentional injuries. Preventive measures should be taken based on patient's sex and age and the cause of unintentional injuries. The spread of first aid knowledge, improvement in emergency transportation, and more attention to organ protection may be useful for decreasing the mortality rate of children with unintentional injuries.