Accident mortality among children

Abstract

The authors present statistics on mortality from accidents, with special reference to those relating to the age-group 1-19 years. For a number of countries figures are given for the proportional mortality from accidents (the number of accident deaths expressed as a percentage of the number of deaths from all causes) and for the specific death-rates, per 100 000 population, from all causes of death, from selected causes, from all causes of accidents, and from various types of accident. From these figures it appears that, in most countries, accidents are becoming relatively increasingly prominent as a cause of death in childhood, primarily because of the conquest of other causes of death-such as infectious and parasitic diseases, which formerly took a heavy toll of children and adolescents-but also to some extent because the death-rate from motor-vehicle accidents is rising and cancelling out the reduction in the rate for other causes of accidental death. In the authors' opinion, further epidemiological investigations into accident causation are required for the purpose of devising quicker and more effective methods of accident prevention.