A study of burn hospitalizations for children younger than 5 years of age: 1983-2008

Abstract

Objective: Burn injury is a leading cause of emergency department visits and hospitalizations for young children. We aimed to use statewide linked health administrative data to evaluate the incidence, temporal trends, and cause of burn injuries for children younger than 5 years hospitalized for burn injuries in Western Australia for the period 1983-2008.

Methods: Epidemiologic analysis of linked hospital morbidity and death data of children younger than 5 years hospitalized with an index burn injury in Western Australia for the period 1983-2008. Poisson regression analyses were used to estimate temporal trends in hospital admissions and the external cause of the burn injury.

Results: From 1983 to 2008, there were 5398 hospitalizations for an index burn injury and 3 burn-related deaths. Hospital admission rates declined by an average annual rate of 2.3% (incidence rate ratio: 0.977 [95% confidence interval: 0.974-0.981]). More than half of the admissions were for scald burns. Hospitalizations declined for injury caused by scald, flame, contact, and electrical burns; however, the number of hospital admissions increased for chemical burns during the study period.

Conclusions: The burn-injury hospitalizations reported in this study were preventable. Most burns occurred in the home and resulted from exposure to a household hazard. Further effort needs to be devoted to burn prevention and safety strategies, particularly in relation to scalds, to further reduce the incidence of burn injury in young children.