‘Race’ or place? Explaining ethnic variations in childhood pedestrian injury rates in London

Abstract

There is a substantial literature on socio-economic inequalities in injury rates, but less on ethnic differences. Using police records of road injuries to examine the relationships between pedestrian injury, area deprivation and ethnicity we found that, in London, children categorised as ‘Black’ had higher injury rates than those categorised as ‘White’ or ‘Asian’, and that living in less deprived areas did not protect ‘Black’ children from higher risk. Ethnic differences in injury rates cannot be explained by minority ethnic status or area deprivation, but are likely to result from the complex ways in which ethnicity shapes local experiences of exposure to injury risk.