Serious Injuries

Indicator #17: Serious Injury among Children & Youth

Indicator 17: Incidence of severe injuries among children and youth age 0–19.

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Key Messages

• Childhood injury is an important global public health priority. In 2005 the World Health Organization published a Global Call to Action to call attention to the area of child and adolescent injury prevention.¹
• While the vast majority of unintentional childhood injury deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, it is still an important health concern in Canada, involving several hundred cases each year. In fact, unintentional injuries (e.g., motor vehicle crashes, falls, poisoning, drowning, suffocation, fire) are the leading cause of death among Canadian children and youth age 0–19, and the third leading cause of hospitalizations.^2,3
• Data analyzed here reflect serious injuries, which are described by the BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit as consisting of one or more of 60 specific ICD-10 codes identifying injuries that consistently result in at least a one-night admission to hospital.⁴
• Figure 17.1 shows that the age-standardized rate of serious injury-related hospitalizations among BC children and youth age 0–19 has declined by 33.8 per cent, from a high of 98.6 per 100,000 population in 2004/05 to a low of 65.2 per 100,000 in 2013/14.
• Figure 17.2 presents these data by health authority, and indicates that Northern Health and Interior Health reported the highest age-standardized hospitalization rates for serious injuries among children and youth age 0–19 in 2013/14, at 88.6 per 100,000 population and 87.1 per 100,000 respectively. These rates were significantly higher than the BC average of 65.2 per 100,000. In contrast, Vancouver Coastal Health reported the lowest rate in 2013/14 at 45.9 per 100,000–substantially lower than the BC average.
• Figure 17.3 demonstrates that there was considerable variation in rates of serious injury hospitalizations among children and youth age 0–19 among the health service delivery areas (HSDAs) in 2013/14. The highest rate was found in the Northwest HSDA at 104.1 per 100,000. Rates were also high in Fraser East (100.0), East Kootenay (91.1), Thompson Cariboo Shuswap (88.8), and Okanagan (86.1). Rates were lowest in Vancouver and Richmond HSDAs (35.2 and 36.0 per 100,000 respectively), and both of these regions had rates that were substantially lower than the BC average of 65.2 per 100,000.

Figure Notes and Sources