A, the characteristics of children’s accidental injuries.
1, suddenness: accidental injuries are sudden, the child a few hours, or even a few minutes ago or very lively and lovely, suddenly an accident caused by the child was injured.
2, unpredictability: most of the accidental injuries to children are due to parental negligence and carelessness, in the case of failure to take into account the occurrence of accidents, but also partly due to the sudden occurrence of natural disasters or external injuries.
3, the complexity of the cause: a variety of reasons can cause accidental injury, so the cause of accidental injury is very complex.
4, the diversity of places: accidental injury can occur in any place. Family, school, child care institutions, shopping malls, theaters, various entertainment venues; trains, automobiles, tractors, ships, wooden boats, airplanes, various other means of transportation; rivers, lakes, seas, ditches, swimming pools, sports fields, parks, zoos, highways, various tourist attractions, etc. can occur accidental injuries.
Second, the seriousness of children’s accidental injuries
Children’s accidental injuries to children’s health threat is no less than many serious diseases that endanger children’s health, and even more than the general common diseases on children’s health hazards. Children’s accidental injuries to children’s health is the direct danger of accidental death, accidental disability, accidental injury.
1, accidental death: in the 1990s, China’s 0-14-year-old children accidental death special investigation shows that accidental death has been the first cause of death of children aged 0-14 years, accounting for 26.1% of the total mortality rate of children aged 0-14 years. 1-4 years old, 5-9 years old, 10-14 years old children accidental death has accounted for 56%, 65%, 60% of the total number of deaths of children of this age. In other words, accidental deaths among children aged 1-14 in China have accounted for more than half of the total deaths.
2, acquired disability: 1987 national child survey data show that: the incidence of acquired disability within 1 year old 0.1%, 1-4 years old 0.3%, 5-9 years old 0.6%, 10-14 years old 0.7%. From infant growth to 10-14 years old, child disability increases 7 times. According to the survey projection of the national accidental injuries caused by acquired disability of about 1.75 million children, including physical disability accounted for 60%.
3, accidental injury: accidental injury caused by children who need to go to the hospital for treatment is more and more common. It is estimated that about 1 in 6 children worldwide each year need to be treated in hospitals for accidental injuries. According to the results of China’s disease detection and injury epidemiological survey: it is estimated that about 40 million primary and secondary school students suffer from various accidental injuries each year, of which 13.6 million need outpatient or emergency treatment and 3.35 million need hospitalization; 1.2 million have impaired normal function and 400,000 are disabled. The direct losses caused amounted to billions of dollars.
Third, the causes of children’s accidental injury analysis
Causes of children’s accidental injuries are complex, both objective and subjective aspects, through the investigation and research is summarized in the following aspects.
1, the two sides of socio-economic development
In recent years, with the development of science and technology, there has been great progress in the field of health care, new means of examination, new treatment methods, new drugs, the use of new vaccines and the implementation of sound preventive measures, pneumonia, diarrhea, tetanus, tuberculosis and other diseases that used to be very threatening to children’s lives, have been eliminated or effectively controlled. The year-on-year decline in the overall child mortality rate and the change in the ranking of causes of death show that social development progresses in favor of children’s growth. But at the same time, we also found that with the development of social economy, people’s lifestyle changes, the popularity of household appliances, the high-rise of urban buildings, and the massive increase of transportation, especially automobiles, have become new factors threatening the safety of children’s lives.
2, guardians weak awareness of prevention, lack of necessary safety knowledge
The survey found that many parents are weak in safety awareness (relatively speaking, teachers are better), simply can not think of children will have an accident. Most of the accidental injuries to children occur because parents, teachers and other guardians lack the awareness and knowledge to prevent accidental injuries to children. For example, in June 1999, a five-and-a-half-year-old child in Beijing came home from kindergarten in the afternoon and cried at home. In order to coax him and make him happy, his parents put a Japanese bean into his mouth, and as a result, the Japanese bean accidentally entered his trachea, and the parents quickly took the child to a nearby hospital, but the child had died from asphyxiation.
3, there is a gap in children’s safety knowledge, lack of certain preventive capabilities
The incidence of children’s accidents is closely related to the education methods of kindergartens and families. Under the influence of exam-oriented education, adults only pay attention to the “knowledge” of children’s education, that children as long as they learn well, it does not matter whether they learn other aspects of knowledge. We found through the survey that nearly half of the children aged 3 to 6 years old have some safety awareness, and more than 10% of the children are extremely weak in safety awareness, lacking due knowledge of the possible dangers in life and do not know how to avoid risks. For example, a 6-year-old boy in a southern city was playing in a family home with a set of power distribution facilities. The child, who had paid attention to the high-voltage signs on the iron gates around the distribution facilities, climbed up the escalator to the operating platform and was injured by the current, resulting in paraplegia. For example, a test of 152 children in a kindergarten class on “recognizing traffic signs” found that only 74 children passed the test completely, but parents and teachers estimated that 102 and 104 children passed the test, respectively. This contributes to the lack of safety knowledge among children.
Some guardians are aware of the factors that are detrimental to children’s development, but they simply protect children in all aspects, believing that “less activity, less accidents”, and they do all the things that children should do for them. As a result, children lack the basic ability to prevent dangerous things, and many accidents occur that should not happen.
4. Children are in the process of growth and development and have low levels of body functions.
Among the accidents that happen to children, head injuries, knocked out teeth, fractures, falls, drowning, car accidents, etc. are to a certain extent caused by the weakness of young children, poor physical development and poor motor function. Studies in Sweden and Japan have shown that children often do not know how to dodge when facing oncoming cars, pay attention to cars in one direction but not the other, lack proper judgment of the speed of cars, mistakenly believe that cars with less noise are not dangerous, and so on. It can be seen that children are a group prone to problems.
Fourth, why children are prone to accidental injuries
Children are prone to accidental injuries, and the degree of accidental injuries often more serious than adults, due to.
1, children’s poor awareness of the dangers.
2, children’s motor skills are not perfect, uncoordinated movements, poor balance function, poor escape ability in the event of an accident, is also one of the reasons why children are prone to injury.
3, children are lively and active, like to climb high, climb trees, slide the staircase handrail, over the wall, climb the window sill or lanai guardrail, jump down from a height, etc., these are easy to happen fall or fall injuries.
4, the child’s skin is tender, the skin layer is thin, the body surface area is small, the same cup of boiling water caused by burns, in the adult degree of injury is light, the proportion of injuries is small, while the child is the degree of injury is heavy, large area, serious than adults. Children’s skull bone quality is thinner than adults, adults fall from bed are generally not a big problem, but children, especially infants fall from bed may cause skull fractures, cranial injury.
V. What are the most common accidental injuries to children?
There are many kinds of accidental injuries to children, and the accidental injuries occurring to children of different ages are different.
1, newborns and small infants within 3 months: poor mobility, will not turn over. Due to improper breastfeeding methods, the child may die of asphyxiation due to inhalation of the trachea when the child is sloshing and spitting up milk after eating. The child may sleep with the mother on the same quilt with the mother’s nipple, or the mother’s back or arm may block the baby’s mouth and nose, or the baby may sleep on its back with its mouth and nose blocked, causing asphyxiation. Winter warmth hot water bags, electric blankets, kang the temperature is too high and easy to cause burns.
2, infancy: at this time the child will crawl, easy to fall from the bed caused by cranio-cerebral injury and other trauma. At this time, children will begin to learn to eat food, or grab other things to eat into the cause of accidental ingestion or tracheal foreign body inhalation.
3, early childhood: 1-3 years old children have begun to walk on the ground and the ability to move, but at this time the child’s poor coordination of movement, poor evasion ability, is the age of accidental injury is higher, very prone to all kinds of trauma, such as fractures, dislocations, burns. Injuries to the trachea, ear and other parts of the foreign body are highest at this age. In the southern region of China, most of the drowning accidents in the ponds and ditches around the family occur at this age, and the water depth is mostly less than 1 meter.
4, preschool age: 4-6 years old preschoolers have increased mobility, increased range of activities, curiosity, and driven by curiosity, willing to explore its exactly, such as climbing high, looking out of the window, eating random drugs and food, touching electrical appliances, playing with fire, etc., so it is easy to occur serious trauma, acute poisoning, electrocution, fall injuries and burns, etc.
5.School-age children: As they grow older, their mobility, coordination and comprehensive analysis skills develop further, but their self-control and emergency response skills are worse than those of adults. During this period children fight, play on the road and road, swimming in the pond, and easy to traffic accidents, trauma, drowning, etc..
Sixth, the most common place for children to accidental injuries
Children’s accidental injuries can occur in any place, but the most common place for accidental injuries is around the home and family. The younger the age, the greater the proportion of accidental injuries occurring in the family, domestic surveys show that more than half of the accidental injuries and deaths of children under 5 years of age occur in or around the home. Information provided by Shanghai Children’s Medical Center shows that 52% of children’s unintentional injuries occur in the home, 19% in the street, and 12% in the school. Most of the accidental injuries among preschoolers occur at home, and most of the accidental injuries among school-age children occur at school and on the way to school, and are closely related to school sports facilities and bicycle riding.
With the increase in age, the range of activities of children increased, the trend of diversification of accident sites, child care institutions, schools and their surroundings, roads and outdoor recreation, playgrounds are often children’s accidents.
The nature of accidents varies with the place of occurrence. Within the family, due to the relatively narrow scope of life, most of the accidental injuries occurring in the family life activities related to accidental suffocation, burns, acute drug or food poisoning, falling out of bed, falls, tracheal foreign bodies and electric shock injuries after the corner electricity is common. In addition, families that use coal for heating and cooking are prone to carbon monoxide poisoning. Families with dogs and cats are prone to dog bites and cat scratches.
With the proliferation of high-rise buildings in cities, injuries from falling children have increased. Outside the home, due to the wide range and variety of places, the occurrence of accidents is correspondingly more common and more serious are drowning and traffic accidents. In addition, field activities are prone to snake bites, poisonous scorpions, poisonous bee stings, accidental falls and poisoning caused by accidental consumption of wild fruits.
Seven, the prevention of children’s accidental injuries
In fact, children’s accidental injuries are completely preventable. First of all, parents should raise their own safety awareness, and strengthen safety management and supervision, which is the only way to reduce the occurrence of injuries. For example, strengthening supervision and isolating children from dangerous water sources in and around the house is a powerful measure to reduce child drowning. Proper storage of toxic substances in the home and strengthening dietary hygiene management can reduce the occurrence of child poisoning.
Strengthening awareness of fire prevention, eliminating fire hazards, and strengthening the management of kitchen utensils and electric heating appliances can reduce burns and cuts. Eliminate potential dangers in children’s sleeping environment by not covering their heads with clothes and blankets and not using fluffy pillows during sleep; consume finely chopped food, prohibit eating while running and talking, and strictly keep fragmented miscellaneous objects to prevent children from blocking foreign objects in the trachea due to eating or accidental ingestion, which can prevent choking.
Such accidents can be prevented and avoided if children’s safety education and social awareness are enhanced in kindergartens, childcare centers, schools and their parents on the topics of “children’s home safety, outdoor safety, traffic safety, medication safety, and emergency measures for common accidents”.
It has been proven that the most effective way to prevent accidental injuries is to strengthen child safety education and social awareness, and to establish a natural protection system in the whole society so that the whole society will pay attention to child safety. In the U.S., the “Safe Kids Across America” campaign was launched in 1987, and over the past 16 years, the death rate of children from unintentional injuries has been reduced by 39% in the U.S. This data strongly confirms that child safety and health education can help children avoid preventable unintentional injuries.
In 2002, the Global Child Safety Network introduced its successful model and experience in the U.S. to China, and introduced it to 16 countries, which also drew more and more attention from all walks of life, which will help China develop an effective child safety and health education strategy to reduce the incidence of childhood unintentional injuries.
A multi-pronged approach to prevent accidents before they happen
It must be admitted that there is still a considerable gap between China and developed countries in the promotion, prevention and management of childhood unintentional injuries. At this stage, the prevention of childhood accidental injuries in China can be carried out in many ways, such as increasing publicity, strengthening safety management and promoting legislation.
Eight, the corresponding measures to reduce the occurrence of children’s accidental injuries
1, guardians should establish a sense of safety first, strengthen the knowledge of safety learning, to create a safe and good living environment for children survey found that children’s accidental injuries occur mostly in parents, teachers and other guardians paralysis, so children’s guardians should firmly establish a sense of safety first, strengthen the knowledge of learning, pay attention to the protection of children, always put the safety of children in mind. .
2.Combine safety education with children’s lives to improve children’s awareness and ability to protect themselves
3.Cultivate and train children to develop good living habits to reduce the occurrence of injury accidents
4.Strengthen the physical training of young children to improve their self-protection ability