Prevalence of child injury and associated factors among pediatric patients presenting to jimma university medical center, southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Injury is one of the most important preventable cause of death and disability in children beyond the first few months of life. Hazardous living conditions, lack of safe play space, absence of child care options, responsibility beyond age and vulnerability to injury put children at high risk in developing countries. Even though child injury is becoming major public problem it receives little attention and availability of data addressing this problem is extremely limited in developing countries. Therefore, there is urgent need for more researches which contribute to effective analysis of this problem and creating awareness in Ethiopia. This research will reveal the magnitude of child injury and associated risk factors contributing to develop practical and well targeted preventive measures and to develop well organized approach to child injury to reduce disability and death. It can be base for further research. Objectives: To assess the prevalence and associated risk factors of child injury among pediatric patients presenting to JUMC, 2017. Methods: Facility based cross sectional study was conducted. All pediatric patients under the age of 14 years was included in the study. The data was collected by structured questionnaire and guide was used to collect data. Bivariate logistic regression was used to identify candidate variables and multivariable logistic regression was employed to identify independent predictors of injury and to control confounders. For multivariable logistic regression adjusted odds ratio with its 95% C.I was calculated and confidence interval was used to declare its significance. Result A total of 451 children under the age of 14 seen at JUMC OPD were included in the study of which 54.5 %( n=246) were males and 45.5 %( n=205) were females. 222(49.5%) were under 5. 72.3 %( n=326) of the participants were from rural area. The overall prevalence of child injury was 26.4%. Unintentional injury account for 95.7 %( n=114). Falls were the commonest (37%, N= 44). The commonest organ system injured was musculoskeletal system, representing 35.3 %( n=42). The multivariate logistic regression model concluded that sex being male, low maternal education, care giver are predictors of increased prevalence of child injury Conclusion This study found out that significant number of children are involved in child injury. Majority of the injuries were unintentional injuries. Falling accident was the leading mechanism of trauma followed by burns and RTAs. From body system injuries, musculoskeletal system was the leading body system injured followed by head and soft tissue injuries.