Prevalence of unintentional childhood injuries and its impacts in urban and rural areas of Kavrepalanchok district - A comparative study.

Thesis Report.

ABSTRACT: Introduction: Unintentional injury is a major public health problem affecting both developed and developing countries resulting in millions of deaths and disabilities in children per year. These injuries are strongly related to social determinants; thus, the burden mainly falls on Low - and Middle - Income Countries. Road traffic injuries, burns, poisonings, and falls are five among fifteen leading causes of death in children. The understanding of various factors like child's age, gender, place of residence, parental age, religion, ethnicity, education, occupation, socio-economic status and their marital status is crucial in addressing unintentional childhood injuries as well as designing and implementing childhood injury prevention programs. This study aims to explore the epidemiology of unintentional childhood injuries and estimate the impacts of these injuries in rural and urban areas of Kavrepalanchok district. Methodology: A cross sectional analytical study was done in rural and urban areas of Kavrepalanchok district. The study participants were 667 children of 1-16 years age; 342 from rural and 325 from the urban area and the respondents were their parents. The questionnaire assessed the socio-demographic details of the children and parents, respondent's knowledge of unintentional injury, details of the injury event and its impacts. The respondent's knowledge was categorized according to their score into good and poor and the effects of various socio-demographic factors of the respondent upon their knowledge were studied. Further, the relationship between various child and parental factors and unintentional childhood injuries were also identified. Results: Out of the total children, 26% from rural and 17.2% from urban areas had unintentional injuries in the past 12 months. Falls were the most common mode of injury in both the areas. More than half of the injuries from both the areas resulted in an open wound in the upper and lower limbs for which majority of them received treatment. It was seen that 32.3% of urban respondents and only 3.8% of rural respondents had a good knowledge regarding unintentional injuries. Various factors like child's gender, residence, parent's education, occupation, socio-economic status and family income affected the occurrence of unintentional childhood injuries. The injuries resulted in impairment and disability in 23.6% and 3.6% of children from rural and urban area respectively. Conclusions: The study revealed that the prevalence of unintentional childhood injuries and their impacts were higher in rural area than in urban area. Similarly, rural respondents had poor knowledge regarding unintentional injuries. As the rate and pattern of unintentional childhood injuries in the rural and urban area differ, the prevention strategies should focus on risk factors that apply to both the areas. Likewise, awareness among the parents and primary caregivers should be created about the fact that childhood injuries are predictable and preventable. Keywords: Epidemiology, Knowledge, Prevalence, Road Traffic Injuries, Unintentional injury.