CDC Childhood Injury Report: Unintentional Accidents as Leading Causes of Child Mortality

Introduction

In 2008, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a report "CDC Childhood Injury Report: Patterns of Unintentional Injuries among 0-19-Year-Olds in the United States, 2000-2006." This report directed the audience to unintentional accidents, which were the leading causes of child mortality rate (Borse, Gilchrist, Dellinger, Rudd, Ballesteros, & Sleet, 2008).

Moreover, intentional accidents included motor vehicle crashes, suffocation, poisoning, fire, drowning, and falls. Additionally, the ideal statement passed across by the authors of the report was to establish awareness that the leading cause of child mortality rates was indeed predictable as well as preventable (Borse et al., 2008). Furthermore, researchers, scholars, practitioners, non-governmental, and governmental entities have reviewed the CDC report, but limited counter-measures have been implemented over the years to address the issue. Indeed, the report was intended to establish a reformation of unintentional injuries of children.According to research conducted by Borse et al. (2008), roughly 13,000 children aged 0 to 19 die yearly in the United States due to unintentional injuries. Additionally, male children registered a higher mortality rate than female children. In other terms, the ratio of male to female deaths raged 2:1, respectively. Moreover, transportation injuries were the leading cause of death for the kids, which included the highest rates among the occupants of the automobile in traffic, followed by pedestrians and pedal cyclists.

Leading Causes of Unintentional Fatal Injuries/Death

For children less than a year old, statistical presentation reflected that two-thirds of the unintentional-injuries-related deaths were caused by suffocation.
Also, drowning was the number one cause of injury death among children aged between one and four years of age.
Road accidents were the leading cause of unintentional injuries among children aged 5 to 19 years of age.

Leading Causes of Unintentional Non-Fatal Injuries/Curable

Also, Borse et al. (2008), concluded that roughly 9 million children initially visited the emergency sector due to unintentional injury that required medical attention.
According to the statistical analysis, the male children dominate the emergency care visits than female kids.
Also, falls-related injuries were roughly 2.8 million, and for the children for less than one year, nearly 50% reflected nonfatal wounds.
Additionally, falls was the leading cause of nonfatal unintentional injuries among children aged 15 and below.
The leading cause of unintentional nonfatal injuries among children aged 0 to 9 were insect stings and animal bites.
Children aged 10 to 14 nonfatal injuries were caused by overexertion
Nonetheless, struck by or against an object, falls, and automobile occupant injuries were the leading causes of nonfatal injuries among teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19.

The Association of Maternal and Children Health programs (AMCHP) and the CDC need to empower and encourage you to consider the chances of joining and guiding this transformation in an ideal and positive approach. Nonetheless, the campaign provides you with the opportunity of joining the Maternal and Children Health (MCH) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Injury program leaders as well as the National Center for Injury Prevention (NCIP) and National Plan for Children leaders, and the public health information officer to contribute towards the establishment of childhood injury intervention programs in your states. You may need to consider the opportunity of sharing prevention ideas, establish a partnership with non-governmental entities, reach out to families; for example, some of the initiatives may include:

• Even with the current reduction of childhood mortality rates caused by unintentional severe injuries in several states, the death rates from external causes has a significant impact on the pediatric population globally (Imamura, Troster, & de Oliveira, 2012).
• The cost of morbidity and mobility are comparable to those of cancer and chronic illness treatment; therefore, presenting higher financial constraint to the health system worldwide (Imamura et al., 2012).
• External causes of unintentional fatal injuries lead to the early loss of period of life and productivity in younger individuals (Imamura et al., 2012).
• Unintentional injuries are noted uniformly distributed throughout the globe and are highly influenced by the socioeconomic status of a population (Imamura et al., 2012).
• Also, by using socioeconomic facts, 95% of all deaths related the unintentional fatal injuries in children occur in poorest nations and populations (Dellinger & Gilchrist, 2019). Even with the current confirmation that accidental injuries are understandable, predictable, and preventable, it still affects developing and developed countries (Imamura et al., 2012).
• The perfect news relates that mortality rates among children have declined nearly by 13% between 2010 and 2014, with 11% in the previous years (Dellinger & Gilchrist, 2019). A clear indication that the public health turmoil of unintentional injuries among children remains high, and there is room for significant improvements to save the lives of children (Dellinger & Gilchrist, 2019).

Presently, there are no national funding programs for unintentional childhood injury prevention. The United States, on the other hand, allocates billions of dollars each year to the health sector to cover the insurance for the kids. According to Borse et al., (2008), the CDC and the NCIP are allocated roughly $160 million, with no funds allocated to initiate childhood injury prevention. Moreover, only 20 states receive nearly $300,000 yearly for maintaining their injury and violence preventions plans/programs, but not specific allocation for child injury prevention care.

Also, the MCH programs have agreed that the injury prevention mechanism as a pressing need. Unfortunately, the program has shown and driven little efforts as well as limited resources to initiate a proven plan or laws that prevent accidental injuries.

On a national scope, the entire population needs to shift their focus and priorities towards preventing accidental injuries before they happen. The best means of prevention is by supporting evidence-based policies and directing funds to the appropriate agencies to aid in implement prominent and promising programs that aim to save children's lives. These programs can as well implement the National Action Plan for Child Injury Prevention.

The National Action Plan can assist in raising awareness about unnecessary child and teen injuries and its effects on the nation. Besides, the plan can initiate a prevention solution to the problem, for example, home visitation tool for assessing child injury risk, communication toolkits for child injury prevention, tools for employers, safe sleep for infants, and online clearinghouse of community-based injury prevention programming, among others (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012).

As a state, we need to continue supporting the critical work that our agencies with the help of the CDC do to keep the children and families safe by educating and initiating preventive measures such as installing smoke/fire alarms and establishing notice boards/posters to indicate health hazards to minimize the rates of unintentional injuries.

References

Borse, N., Gilchrist, J., Dellinger, A., Rudd, R., Ballesteros, M., & Sleet, D. (2008). CDC Childhood Injury Report: Patterns of Unintentional Injuries among 0 -19-Year-Olds in the United States, 2000-2006. Atalanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/safechild/pdf/cdc-childhoodinjury.pdf

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2012). National Center for Injury Prevention and Control: An agenda to prevent injuries and promote the safety of children and adolescents in the United States. Atlanta: CDC, NCIPC. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/safechild/pdf/national_action_plan_for_child_injury_prevention-a.pdf

Dellinger, A., & Gilchrist, J. (2019). Leading causes of fatal and nonfatal unintentional injury for children and teens and the role of lifestyle clinicians. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 13(1): 7-21. doi: 10.1177/1559827617696297.

Imamura, J., Troster, E., & de Oliveira, C. (2012). What types of unintentional injuries kill our children? Do infants die of the same types of injuries? A systematic review. Clinics, 67(9): 1107-1116. doi: 10.6061/clinics/2012(09)20.