Trends in childhood injury mortality in Canada, 1979–2002

Abstract

Objective:To examine national trends in mortality rates for injuries among Canadian children younger than 15 years in 1979–2002.Methods:Data on injury deaths were obtained from the Canadian Vital Statistics system at Statistics Canada. Injuries were classified using the codes for external cause of injury and poisoning (E-codes) by intent and by mechanism. Mortality rates were age adjusted to the 1990 world standard population. Negative binomial regression was used to estimate the secular trends.Results:Annual mortality rates for total and unintentional injuries declined substantially (from 23.8 and 21.7 in 1979 to 7.2 and 5.8 in 2002, respectively), whereas suicide deaths among children aged 10–14 showed an increasing trend. All Canadian provinces and territories showed a decreasing trend in mortality rates of total injuries. Motor vehicle related injuries were the most common cause of injury deaths (accounted for an average of 36.4% of total injury deaths), followed by suffocation (14.3%), drowning (13.5%), and burning (11.1%); however, suffocation was the leading cause for infants. The number of potential years of life lost due to injury before age 75 decreased from 89 343 in 1979 to 27 948 in 2002 for children aged 0–14 years.Conclusions:During the period 1979–2002, there were dramatic decreases in childhood mortality for total injuries and unintentional injuries as well as various degrees of reduction for all causes of injury except suffocation in children aged 10–14 years and drowning in infants. The reason for the reduction in injury mortality might be multifactoral.

Suicide among children and adolescents in Canada: trends and sex differences, 1980–2008

“…2 There is limited literature on self-inflicted injuries among children 10-14 years of age in Canada and the United States, but there appears to be a trend toward younger children starting to self-harm. 3,4 Furthermore, the trend of suicide by suffocation moving to younger ages may be partly due to cases of the "choking game" (selfstrangulation without intent to cause permanent harm) that have been misclassified as suicides. [5][6][7] Risk factors for suicidal behaviour and ideation in young people include a psychiatric diagnosis (e.g., depression), substance abuse, past suicidal behaviour, family factors and other life stressors (e.g., relationships, bullying) that have complex interactions.…”

Exogenic poisoning in children assisted in a pediatric emergency unit

“…In the developed countries, accidents are the major mortality cause in children over a year old. They contribute significantly to morbidity in childhood (1)(2) . Furthermore, the nonfatal accidents represent an important cost for the health systems (3)(4) .…”

Child mortality: preventing future child deaths and optimizing family support

“…Other high-income countries explain their declines in these accidents similarly [93,94,96]. and the use of mirrors or a camera when a truck is turning right.…”

“…As in other high-income countries this trend is extremely worrying [94,96,112]. The suicidal process in adolescence is related to behavioral and emotional (family) problems [113], and the overall risk of suicide increases when underlying factors, which contribute to the deliberate self-harm, are silently present [114].…”

“…Worldwide, injuries are the leading cause of death among children aged 10-19 years [91][92][93][94]. Each year approximately 950 000 children under 18 years of age die as a result of injury or violence.…”