Abstract
BackgroundTo explore the characteristics of unintentional childhood-injury during the COVID-19 pandemic and assess the association of unintentional-injury with maternal emotional status.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted with a convenience sample of 1300 children under 12-years-old from 21 schools (including nurseries/ kindergartens/ primary schools) in Wuhan and Shanghai during March to April 2020, and the mothers completed questionnaires online. Self-rating Depression/Anxiety Scales were used to evaluate maternal emotional status, questions on child unintentional-injury were based on the International-Statistical-Classification-of-Diseases-and-Related-Health-Problems-version-10 (ICD-10), and a total of 11 kinds of unintentional injuries were inquired. Information on socio-demographic and family-background factors was also collected.ResultsThe children of 0–4, 5–9, and 10–12 years accounted for 29.2, 55.2 and 15.6%, respectively, the unintentional-injury rates were 10.29, 4.18 and 3.45%, respectively (P < 0.001), and boys had higher rates than girls. The three leading causes included “being struck by/against”, falls and animal bites (traffic-injury accounted for a small proportion). Lower maternal educational, living in suburban/rural (vs. urban) areas, grandparents (vs. mothers) being main caregivers, more child exposure to secondhand smoke, close relatives being suspected/ confirmed COVID-19 cases were associated with a higher risk of child unintentional-injury. After adjusting for related confounders, higher maternal depression levels were associated with a higher risk of unintentional injury.ConclusionsThe characteristics of unintentional childhood injury were different from those in non-pandemic periods. The main causes, risk factors and the association of unintentional injury with maternal depression deserve attention for development of effective measures for preventing children from unintentional injury during COVID-19 pandemic.Graphical abstract
Highlights
To explore the characteristics of unintentional childhood-injury during the COVID-19 pandemic and assess the association of unintentional-injury with maternal emotional status
This study showed that the ranking of the causes of unintentional childhood injury was different from the ranking before the pandemic
Consistent with previous studies, we found that older mothers were associated with a lower risk of unintentional childhood injury, which may be because that older mothers may have a greater awareness of the risk of unintentional injury than younger mothers [40]
Summary
To explore the characteristics of unintentional childhood-injury during the COVID-19 pandemic and assess the association of unintentional-injury with maternal emotional status. In China, the great pandemic mainly occurred from late January 2020 to the end of April 2020, when school closure and home confinement were both implemented throughout China, and foreign-imported COVID-19 cases have been considered as a main concern since May 2020. From late January 2020 to the end of April 2020 in China, in order to cut off the transmission route of the virus, passenger travel of every type experienced sharp reductions including airports and railway stations being closed and intracity public transport affected (including in Wuhan and Shanghai) [3], people were requested to stay at home, and school students took online courses at home due to school closure [4, 5]
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