National Safety Month: Behind the Child Injury Trends in California
As we mark National Safety Month in June, it’s a good time to remember that unintentional injuries, such as motor accidents and trips and falls, are the leading cause of death for children ages 1-19. One in five deaths is due to intentional injuries.
While hospitalizations for injuries among children and youth under age 20 declined by 33% from 1993 to 2010 in California, the state’s rates are still above those of the nation; more than 30,000 children had non-fatal injuries serious enough to require a hospital stay in 2010.
However, with careful planning and precaution, many accidental injuries easily can be prevented. Seatbelt and child seat laws have helped dramatically decrease child injuries and deaths from motor vehicle accidents. Precautions also can be taken to prevent unintentional injury from slipping, tripping, and falling, such as installing gates at the top and bottom of stairs.
To learn more about child injuries, check out these links from kidsdata.org and check back for updated child injury statistics coming soon:
- Injury Hospitalizations
- Intentional Injury Hospitalizations, by Age
- Unintentional Injury Hospitalizations, by Age
More resources:
National Safety Month, National Safety Council
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Child Safety and Injury Prevention Resource Brief, Maternal and Child Health Library at Georgetown University
Photo credit: Lindsay Shaver via Flickr
Posted by Amy Lam
This entry was posted on Monday, June 24th, 2013 at 12:56 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.