Abstract
BackgroundThe injury mortality rates around the globe show considerable country-to-country differences and the rates have decreased at very different speeds. In Finland, the proportion of total mortality attributed to injuries has been one of the highest in the European Union. The purpose of the present study was to examine the 47-year nationwide trend and the male to female ratio in the number and incidence of fatal injuries among 0 to 14-year-old children in Finland.MethodsThe data were obtained from the Official Cause-of-Death Statistics of Finland during 1971–2017. The main categories for unintentional injury deaths were road traffic injuries, water traffic injuries, falls, drownings, and poisonings. For intentional injury deaths, the main categories were suicides and homicides.ResultsIn 1971, there were 109 fatal injuries in girls and 207 in boys, while in 2017, these numbers had reduced to 9 and 12. The corresponding incidences (per 100,000 children per year) were 20.1 and 2.1 for girls, and 36.7 and 2.6 for boys, respectively. During the study period overall male to female injury incidence ratio decreased from 1.8 to 1.2. The greatest decline occurred in the number of fatal motor vehicle injuries. In 1971, the incidence of intentional deaths (suicides and homicides) was 2.6 in girls and 2.7 in boys, while in 2017 these numbers were 0.9 and 0.4, respectively.ConclusionsThis nationwide study confirms that the number and incidence rates of childhood injury deaths have reduced till current days and are already below the average in Europe.
Highlights
The injury mortality rates around the globe show considerable country-to-country differences and the rates have decreased at very different speeds
In 0 to 14-year-old Finnish children, the incidence of fatal injuries was 40 per 100,000 children in 1950, 30 in 1960, and 27 in 1970 (Slätis and Ruusinen 1991; Ruusinen 1990). and previously we reported the trend of childhood injury deaths in 1971–2010 (Parkkari et al 2013)
The findings confirm that there has been a decline in pediatric injury deaths over the years studied and this development has continued till current days
Summary
The injury mortality rates around the globe show considerable country-to-country differences and the rates have decreased at very different speeds. Child Environment Health Action Plan for Europe (CEHAPE) is an agreement where European Union member states in 2004 accepted to create and implement health and safety promotion programmes among children (http://www.childsafetyeurope.org/actionplans/index.html). European countries have been actively implementing recommendations of Child Safety Action Plan (CSAP) of European Child Safety Alliance (World Health Organization mortality database 2018; Anderson et al 2001) (http://www.childsafetyeurope.org/ actionplans/index.html). The Child Safety Action Plan initiative describes the process undertaken for the development of national child safety action plans in Europe. It highlights how the different phases of the project - assessment, strategic planning and action planning - fit together to support countries in their planning and cross-cutting approach to injury prevention (http://www.childsafetyeurope.org/actionplans/index.html)
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