Preventing injury in childhood

doi:10.1136/bmj.a298

BMJ 2008;336:1388-1389 (21 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.a298

Editorials

Preventing injury in childhood

Injury surveillance in the UK lags behind other European countries

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

UK Child Safety Week will be launched by the Child AccidentPrevention Trust on 23 June this year. Its aim is to raise awarenessof childhood accidents and prevention strategies.

Unintentional injury accounts for around one in five of alldeaths in children and adolescents in the European Union withthe highest injury rates occurring in Greece, Estonia, and Belgium.¹In the United Kingdom, unintentional injury is a leading causeof death and illness in children and is the most common causeof hospital admission—it accounts for around two millionvisits to accident and emergency departments each year, at acost to the NHS of around £146m ( ${euro}$ 182m; $288m).² Injuryin childhood is strongly associated with poverty, and deathrates from unintentional injury in the UK are around three timeshigher in children from the poorest families than in those fromthe least poor families; little is known about . . . [Full text of this article]

Graham Kirkwood, research fellow, Allyson Pollock, professor

¹ Centre for International Public Health Policy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9AG

graham.kirkwood@ed.ac.uk

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Article

Deaths from injury in children and employment status in family: analysis of trends in class specific death rates: Phil Edwards, Ian Roberts, Judith Green, and Suzanne Lutchmun
BMJ 2006 333: 119. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Drastic but the least Studied: Dewan S. Billal, Ph.D, et al.
bmj.com, 20 Jun 2008 [Full text]
Recycling nonsense: Charles Essex
bmj.com, 21 Jun 2008 [Full text]
Re: Recycling nonsense: Guy A Chapman
bmj.com, 23 Jun 2008 [Full text]
Re: Recycling nonsense: Peter W Ward
bmj.com, 23 Jun 2008 [Full text]
Schools can oppose safety measures for spurious reasons: Peter M English
bmj.com, 23 Jun 2008 [Full text]
no such thing as an 'accident'?: helene brandon
bmj.com, 25 Jun 2008 [Full text]