Patterns of accidents among children visiting Jimma University Hospital, south west of Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Accidents are now becoming the leading causes of morbidity and mortality after the first year of life; hence the need to analyze the pattern in prospective manner will help plan preventive measures as well as indicate the magnitude of the problem.

Objective: To assess the pattern of childhood accidents among children under 15 years of age.

Methods: A cross-sectional analysis was undertaken in and out patient service settings of Jimma University specialized hospital, from July 2003 to June 2004. The information was collected using structured and pre-tested questionnaire, on factors related to socio-demographic and economic variables as well as on the nature and type of accident and analysed by SPSS Version 12.0.

Results: Of the total 452 cases of accidents 79 (17.5%), 271 (60.0%) and 102(22.6%) of the subjects were within age group of 0-4, 5-9, and 10-14 years, respectively. The predominant observed accidents among all age groups were laceration wounds, 304 (67.3%) and soft tissues contusions, 111 (24.6%). Traumatic injury other than car accident accounted for 82.38%, burn 15.0%, poisoning 1.3% and car accident 1.3%. Burn was common among children 5 - 9 years. There was statitically significant association between age and type of accident and nature of injury (p <0.05). Two hudred eight one of the accident occurred at home (62.2%), followed by school (14.8%), high way (16.8%) and in sport fields (6.2%). One hundred twenty four (27.4%), 76(16.8%) and 252(55.8%) ended with complete recovery, recovery with major and minor sequelae respectively.

Conclusion: The study, has tried to indicate that accidents are becoming a public health problem in the area which needs designing a local as well as a national strategy on child accident prevention, conrol and management.