Trends of Pediatric Injuries Amongst 5-Year-Olds Presented in the Emergency Department: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) report in 2014, more than 5 million people die each year as a result of injuries. This accounts for approximately 9 percent of the world’s deaths, and nearly 1.7 times the number of fatalities that result from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Approximately one quarter of the 5 million deaths from injuries are the result of intentional injuries (suicide and homicide), while the remainder are the result of unintentional injuries (with 24% being road traffic injuries). Other main causes of death from injuries are
falls, drowning, burns, poisoning and war.
Databases from some of the hospitals hold in excess of 50,000 cases just in one year while others ranged between 30,000- 50,000 cases in one year. Moreover, two of the potential hospitals
were operating on a conventional hard copy paper-based recording system and accessing these records would be extremely time consuming and prone to human error.
The study highlighted the shortcoming of a lack of an in-depth Child Injury Database in concordance with existing databases, and the lack of effective screening tools within the hospital setting to appropriately identify and classify intent. The findings from the analysis of hospital records (low rates of recorded CAN cases) provided strong evidence that there are significant gaps in identifying non-accidental injuries in the clinical setting in Malaysia due to the ‘grey’ area that exists especially amongst 5-Year-Olds. Being male and of Malay ethnicity increases the child’s risk of injuries.
Pediatr Neonatal Nurs Open J. 2018; 5(1): 19-28. doi: 10.17140/PNNOJ-5-129
