TY - JOUR PY - 2006// TI - Children's non-accidental injuries at an Accident and Emergency department: Does the age of the child and the type of injury matter? JO - Accident and emergency nursing A1 - Bull, Leona SP - 155 EP - 159 VL - 14 IS - 3 N2 - Physical child abuse is a significant social and medical problem within the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. This study considers the role of emergency medical services in the detection of non-accidental childhood injury by examining paediatric attendances at a central London Accident and Emergency department over a two year period. There were 183 recorded episodes of non-accidental injury out of 17,582 paediatric attendances to the A&E department over two years. At bivariate level, non-accidental injury was associated with the age of the patient, and the primary clinical diagnosis groups of wounds, poisoning and burns (p<.01). Attendances by children over the age of 10 years, along with attendances for the treatment of wounds or burns, were statistically significant multivariate predictors of non-accidental injury being recorded in A&E (p<.001). This study shows that about 1 in 100 pediatric attendances at A&E are recorded as non-accidental injury. Young children are less likely to be recorded as non-accidentally injured, compared to adolescents. Health professionals need to be vigilant to the possibility of non-accidental injury for all children using emergency health services.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0965-2302 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aaen.2006.05.005 ID - ref1 ER -