JH-IIRU Team Members Publish Results of Global Childhood Unintentional Injury Surveillance Study

More than 800,000 child deaths per year can be attributed to unintentional injuries and more than 95% of both intentional and unintentional child deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that the five most common unintentional injuries among children are from road traffic injuries, falls, burns, drowning and poisoning. And while reductions in child injury mortality have been observed in several high income countries (HICs) as a result of evidence-based programs, there are few studies providing data from LMICs.

As a response to the WHO’s call for better data collection on child injury, the Global Childhood Unintentional Injury Surveillance (GCUIS) study was initiated. This study, conducted by members of the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU), including research associated Siran He, research program coordinator, Jeffrey C. Lunnen, faculty member Prasanthi Puvanachandra and director, Adnan Hyder, collected standardized child injury data from emergency departments at sites in five countries: Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Malaysia and Pakistan. The study intended to determine the epidemiology of the five major childhood unintentional injuries in five major emergency departments in urban sites; to explore potential risk factors and determinants of injury severity and outcomes; and to summarize the characteristics of injuries sustained in homes.

The results of this study can be found in the recently published paper, “Global Childhood Unintentional Injury Study: Multisite Surveillance Data,” in the March 2014 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

This study was supported in part by the World Health Organization, Department of Violence and Injury Prevention.

Access the full article here.