*Mahrukh Majeed, *Quratul ain, *Sidrah Nadeem, *Uzma Rehman, **Waseem A.Siddiqui, **Ashraf Jehangir

ABSTRACT

Objectives: 1. To determine risk factors and proportion of unintentional injuries among children. 2. To correlate injuries with low socioeconomic status and maternal education.
Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Study was conducted at Trauma Centre of Abbassi Shaheed Hospital and NICH hospital of Karachi from May 2009 to August 2009. About 186 unintentionally injured children were included in the study. The data was collected by giving the questionnaire to the patients of unintentional injuries under the age of 0-17 years.
Results: We identified the incidence of unintentional injuries among children including RTA (49.5%), fall 26.9%, burns 18.3% and poisoning 5.4%. Among all, RTA is the most common injury occurred in children. We found that 7-12 years old to be the most vulnerable age group with male preponderance. Unintentional injuries were more likely to occur in children belonging to poor socioeconomic status and illiterate mothers. Conclusion: There is high burden of unintentional injuries among children especially school going children are more susceptible These results are useful to plan further studies and prioritizing prevention programs on injuries both nationally as well as in other developing countries with similar situation.

For Full text contact to:
Prof. Dr. Farah Mansuri
editor@annals-ashkmdc.org

*Students Final Year, MBBS, KMDC
** Department of Community Health Sciences, KMDCi