Citation

Nordstrom DL, Zwerling CS, Stromquist AM, Burmeister LF, Merchant JA. Inj. Prev. 2003; 9(3): 235-240.

Affiliation

Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, University of Iowa College of Public Health, Iowa City, Iowa, USA. dnordstr@fammed.wisc.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12966012

PMCID

PMC1730996

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To identify risk factors for non-fatal injury among rural children. DESIGN: Cross sectional health interview survey, 1994-98. SETTING: A rural Iowa county, not adjacent to a metropolitan area. SUBJECTS: Stratified, random sample of households, including all resident children and adults. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Injury episodes in the past 12 months among children aged 0-17 years and the parental and child characteristics associated with these episodes. RESULTS: Of the 621 children in participating households, 137 or 22.1% were injured during the past 12 months. Children age 5-17 on a sports team were 1.88 times (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07 to 3.31) more likely than other children to be injured. Children age 12-17 who binge drink were 3.50 times (95% CI 1.31 to 9.50) more likely than other children to be injured. Compared with children not on sports teams, girls on teams were 2.26 times (95% CI 1.02 to 5.13) more likely while boys on teams were 1.60 times (95% CI 0.71 to 3.68) more likely to have an injury episode. Compared with children who did not binge drink, girls binge drinking were 8.11 times (95% CI 1.52 to 43.33) more likely while boys binge drinking were 2.19 times (95% CI 0.70 to 6.84) more likely to have an injury episode. CONCLUSIONS: Local studies such as this can provide useful clues regarding the etiology of injury. Some known and some new potential risk factors including behavioral aspects for childhood non-fatal injury in a very rural area were investigated. It is planned to address these cross sectional findings in future longitudinal follow up of this population.