Injuries at a Glance...

"After being hit by over 1,000 pounds of steel moving at 30 mph or faster... Julio remains comatose; Bobby is a quadriplegic; Chris is neither as bright nor well behaved as he was before he was hit." Dr. Barry Pless, National Conference on Injury Prevention, Ottawa 1991.

INJURIES: The Greatest Killer

• Injuries are the leading cause of death for children and youth after the age of one and are a major health problem in Canada. In 1990:

• 225 preschoolers died as a result of injuries (40% of all preschool deaths).

• 189 children between 5 and 9 years of age died as a result of injuries. The injury death rate accounted for almost 50% of all deaths in this age group.

• In the 10 to 14 year old category 429 died in Canada, and almost two-thirds of these deaths were a result of injuries.

• Almost 900 youths between 15 and 19 years of age died of injury related causes, three quarters of these deaths occurred in young men.

• The good news is that over the last 20 years the death rate due to injuries decreased by at least 50% for children under 14 years of age and by 33% for youth 15 to 19 years of age.
  

Motor Vehicles

• In 1990, 776 children and youth died because of motor vehicle collisions. This specific cause varied between age groups. In 1990:

• 74 preschoolers died as a result of motor vehicle collisions; 45% were pedestrians and 45% were passengers (the rest were unspecified).

• 232 school age children died as a result of motor vehicle collisions, 16% were cyclists.

• Almost half of the injury deaths among youth aged 15 to 19 are caused by motor vehicle collisions.

• Thirty-one percent of all fatally injured drivers under the age of 21 had illegal blood alcohol content.
  

Hospitalization

• Injuries that do not result in death may lead to hospitalization, emergency room visits, or visits to doctor and pharmacy.

• In 1989-90, over 15,550 hospital admissions among preschoolers were due to injuries: 15,786 among 5 to 9 year olds, 18,116 among the 10 to 14 year olds; and 28,470 among teenagers aged 15-19.

• Of all the school age children seen in emergency departments for injuries, one fifth are treated for playground injuries.
  

Inequalities

• There are great variations between provinces and territories regarding the rates of injury death. The preschool rates of injury in the Territories are generally much higher than the national average. Poor children are much more likely to die of injuries than other children.

• More boys die of injuries than do girls.

• Injury is a major cause of mortality for Indian children and youth. Their infant injury death rate is almost four times that of Canadian infants. The injury death rate for Indian teenagers is more than three times greater than the rates found for Canadian teenagers.
  

Safe Behavior

• Only 33% of babies under a year old were properly restrained in the correct car seat for their age.

• In 1989, less than half of all Canadian preschoolers were properly restrained in the motor vehicle.

• Very few young people report that they always use a bicycle helmet when cycling. In 1992, a British Columbia survey revealed that in Grade 9 only 4% of the girls and 6% of the boys always wore a bicycle helmet.
  

Adapted from The Health of Canada's Children: A CICH Profile (2nd Edition) published by the Canadian Institute of Child Health, 1995.

Posted by: the Canadian Institute of Child Health, September 1996.

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