Injury hospitalizations of pregnant women in the United States, 2002

Abstract

To estimate the number of injury-related hospitalizations of pregnant women in the United States and to identify injury mechanisms associated with hospitalizations that end in delivery. Using data on injury hospitalizations of pregnant women from the 2002 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Inpatient Sample, we compared the mechanism of injuries of nondelivery hospitalizations with those of delivery hospitalizations. Of an estimated 16,982 injury hospitalizations involving pregnant women in 2002, a delivery occurred in 37.7%. Hospitalizations with injuries caused by overexertion had significantly increased odds of including delivery (odds ratio OR 4.55, confidence interval 95% CI 2.21-9.39) compared with hospitalizations with other causes of injury. Hospitalizations with injuries caused by motor vehicle traffic (OR 0.36, 95% CI 0.23-0.58) had significantly lower odds of including delivery. We estimated that there were 4.1 injury hospitalizations of pregnant women per 1000 deliveries in 2002. The majority of injury mechanisms did not significantly increase the odds of the hospitalization ending in delivery. Providers should broaden injury prevention messages to address poisonings and overexertion.