World Report on child injury prevention
Each day over 2200 children and adolescents die from a preventable injury. The new World Report on Child Injury Prevention provides the first comprehensive global assessment of childhood unintentional injuries and prescribes measures to prevent them. It concludes that if proven prevention measures were adopted everywhere at least 1000 children’s lives could be saved every day.
"Child injuries are an important public health and development issue. In addition to the 830 000 deaths every year, millions of children suffer non-fatal injuries that often require long-term hospitalization and rehabilitation," said WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan. "The costs of such treatment can throw an entire family into poverty. Children in poorer families and communities are at increased risk of injury because they are less likely to benefit from prevention programmes and high quality health services."
Contributing author, Professor Mark Stevenson, Senior Director The George Institute says, "The George Institute is working to reduce the impact of road injury, both in Australia and across the world. Road traffic crashes are a leading cause of death and serious injury in Australia and other high-income countries. Child restraints are just one pertinent issue to Australia. What’s concerning is that there is a high proportion of children who are inappropriately restrained. Misuse of restraints can downgrade the level of protection in a crash, and legislation should encompass increased use of restraints.
A new study at The George Institute will uncover the best methods to increase the use of appropriate restraints and decrease misuse of child restraints in pre-school aged children in cars.
While the new World Report highlights that many high-income countries have been able to reduce their child injury deaths by up to 50% over the past 30 years, the issue remains a problem for them, with unintentional injuries accounting for 40% of all child deaths in such countries.
The report outlines the impact that proven prevention measures can have. Professor Stevenson, "Policy makers must look to the best available evidence on these issues. This new report clearly outlines the best methods to address child injury."
The report can be found at www.who.int.