Legislation coverage for child injury prevention in China

Abstract

ObjectiveTo examine the extent to which effective interventions to prevent unintentional child injury are reflected in the laws and regulations of China.MethodsWe focused on the six common causes of fatal child injuries – drowning, road traffic injury, falls, poisoning, burns and suffocation. We investigated 27 interventions recommended by the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization or the European Child Safety Alliance. We searched China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Lawyee for Chinese legislations using keywords and synonyms for the 27 interventions. We reviewed the identified legislations for statements specifying the responsible implementation department.FindingsSeven national laws, nine regulations of the State Council and 46 departmental regulations were found to relate to at least one of the interventions. Although seven of the 27 internationally recommended interventions were covered by Chinese laws, 10 were not covered by any current Chinese law or regulation. None of the interventions against drowning and falls that we investigated was covered by national laws. The implementation responsibilities for effective interventions were either not specified or were assigned to multiple governmental departments in 11 or 20 legislative documents, respectively.ConclusionIn Chinese laws and regulations, interventions proven to prevent major causes of unintentional child injuries are underrepresented and the associated implementation responsibilities are often poorly defined. China should include all such interventions in laws and regulations, and assign implementation responsibility for each to a single department of the national government.

A social change perspective on injury prevention in China

“…A 2015 review of legislative coverage for child injury prevention in China reported that no law covered interventions to prevent child drowning deaths. There is no national programme to teach children to swim 57. Anecdotally few Chinese people can swim, though no published reports of swimming ability were identified.…”

Development and exploratory testing of a school‐based educational program for healthy life behaviors among fifth grade children in South Korea

“…Injuries, such as motor vehicle accidents, drowning, poisoning, falls, fire, and violence, affect school-aged children worldwide (Carruth et al, 2010). Li et al (2015) suggested that school-based health programs provide support for the positive effects of injury prevention and that the regulation of laws at the government level is required.…”

“…When unintentional injuries occur, the initial steps of emergency care depend on the first responders' ability to provide first aid. The outcome of an unintentional injury often depends on the care that is provided at the time of the injury (Gresham et al, 2001;Li et al, 2015).…”

“…A person's health condition is, to some extent, related to one's individual choices regarding eating, exercising, and practicing safe behaviors. Thus, children must receive health education that they can understand and easily implement in their everyday life to protect themselves against diseases and harmful injuries in school, with governmental support (Gresham et al, 2001;Kim, 2010;Li et al, 2015;Robinson & Dearmon, 2013).…”

Advertising of public good and the sex education in Cuba

“…A nivel internacional se identifica que el sector de la salud es uno de los más afectados tanto por los problemas en la asignación de recursos disponibles como por la carencia o ineficiencia de las estrategias de intervención y mecanismos de gestión orientados a traer soluciones integrales a los problemas de salud. Por su relevancia se destacan los estudios de (Carvajal, 2007;O'Brien et al, 2014;Li et al, 2015;Fialová, 2014;Hernández & Vega, 2014). En Cuba instituciones como el Ministerio Nacional de Salud Pública y el Centro Nacional de Educación Sexual (CENESEX) lideran las campañas preventivas nacionales.…”