HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS REGISTER		Author Keyword(s) Vol Page [Advanced]

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this link to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Add article to my folders Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Nordstrom, D L Articles by Merchant, J A Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Nordstrom, D L Articles by Merchant, J A

Identification of risk factors for non-fatal child injury in a rural area: Keokuk County Rural Health Study

¹ Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, University of Iowa College of Public Health, Iowa City, Iowa
² Department of Biostatistics, University of Iowa College of Public Health, Iowa City, Iowa

Correspondence to:
David L Nordstrom, Department of Family Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School, 777 S Mills Street, Madison, WI 53715, USA;
dnordstr{at}fammed.wisc.edu

Objective: To identify risk factors for non-fatal injury among rural children.

Design: Cross sectional health interview survey, 1994–98.

Setting: A rural Iowa county, not adjacent to a metropolitan area.

Subjects: Stratified, random sample of households, including all resident children and adults.

Main outcome measures: Injury episodes in the past 12 months among children aged 0–17 years and the parental and child characteristics associated with these episodes.

Results: Of the 621 children in participating households, 137 or 22.1% were injured during the past 12 months. Children age 5–17 on a sports team were 1.88 times (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07 to 3.31) more likely than other children to be injured. Children age 12–17 who binge drink were 3.50 times (95% CI 1.31 to 9.50) more likely than other children to be injured. Compared with children not on sports teams, girls on teams were 2.26 times (95% CI 1.02 to 5.13) more likely while boys on teams were 1.60 times (95% CI 0.71 to 3.68) more likely to have an injury episode. Compared with children who did not binge drink, girls binge drinking were 8.11 times (95% CI 1.52 to 43.33) more likely while boys binge drinking were 2.19 times (95% CI 0.70 to 6.84) more likely to have an injury episode.

Conclusions: Local studies such as this can provide useful clues regarding the etiology of injury. Some known and some new potential risk factors including behavioral aspects for childhood non-fatal injury in a very rural area were investigated. It is planned to address these cross sectional findings in future longitudinal follow up of this population.

Keywords: children; rural; risk factors; interviews

Abbreviations: CAGE, Cut down, Annoyed, Guilty, Eye opener (questionnaire); CES-D scale, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale; CI, confidence interval; ICD-9-CM, International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision, clinical modification; NHIS, National Health Interview Survey

This article has been cited by other articles:

				L S Kurszewski, S G Gerberich, R C Serfass, A D Ryan, C M Renier, B H Alexander, K F. Carlson, and A S Masten Sports and recreational injuries: regional rural injury study-II: impact on agricultural households and operations Br. J. Sports Med., June 1, 2006; 40(6): 527 - 535. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]