Grant: Project Grant

Traumatic physical injuries are the number one cause of hospitalization and death among children in Canada. These injuries have a significant impact on mental, physical, and social health for the remainder of the child's life. The Canadian Pediatric Society has identified that ninety percent of these unintentional injuries are preventable. The burden from injury can be reduced through prevention programs tailored to at-risk groups. Thus, it is important to understand what social factors place some children at greater risk for traumatic physical injury. Existing research does not provide a strong explanation of how these factors influence a child's risk of injury. We propose to better understand the association between social factors and traumatic physical injury in children using information based on large population-wide data. We will examine a 17-year group of 11,000 children hospitalized for traumatic physical injury and 55,000 matched uninjured children by linking longitudinal administrative and clinical data contained at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy. We will examine 14 social factors including: Use of income assistance, rural/urban status, socioeconomic status, children in care, child mental disorder, and parental factors (involved with criminal justice system, education, social housing, immigration status, high residential mobility, mother's age at first birth, parental Axis I mental disorder, parental Axis II mental disorder, and parental physical disorder) to identify groups and periods of time when children are at greatest risk for traumatic physical injury. Knowing these at-risk factors will guide decision-makers and health policy makers to improve injury prevention efforts by targeting children that are most vulnerable.