The Epidemiological Profile of Injuries in Children up to 59 Months Old in Kermanshah Province in 2015

Introduction: Injuries have always been among the main factors threatening human life and health, and children are one of the vulnerable population groups in this field. The aim of this study is to survey incident and examine the distribution of injuries in children up to 59 months old in Kermanshah Province in 2015. Methods: This survey is a cross-sectional study, gathering its data from Health Vice-presidency of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. It covers all the injured whose reason of injury was referring to private and public hospitals under the supervision of Health Vice-presidency of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, during 2015. Data was collected from the injury software package of Ministry of Health. All registered individuals in this software were included in the study. In addition, all the injuries, including electric shock, road traffic accidents, animal attacks, violence, fall, burn, hit, scorpion and snake sting, drowning, poisoning were entered in our research. Results: The number of injuries in children was 3499 cases: 2216 (63.3%) boys and 1283 (36.7%) girls. Incidence of injuries was 23.3 cases per 1000 children aged 0-59 months old. The highest frequency of injuries was in children aged 0 to 11 months (42%) and majority of them occurred at home (58.5%). Most of the injuries were in summer (especially in September). The most common causes of injuries included fall (52.7%), road traffic injuries (29.6%), and poisoning (14.1%). Conclusion: In the present study, the most frequent injury was falling at home. It is important to make the home a safe environment for children.