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A Household Survey: Unintentional Injury Frequency and Related Factors Among Children Under Five Years in Malatya
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Nazlı Atak1, Leyla Karaoğlu2, Yasemin Korkmaz2, Seda Usubütün3
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1Department of Health Education, Ankara University Faculty of Health Sciences, Ankara, and 2Department of Public
Health, İnönü University Faculty of Medicine, Malatya, and 3Ministry of Health, Ankara, Turkey
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Accidents constitute a major public health problem around the world. They
are one of the leading causes of death among children under five, with
residential accidents accounting for the majority. Since there is no recording
system that provides routine and reliable data about accidents, the data about
the frequency of accidents and related factors are available only through
researches. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of injuryproducing
accidents and related factors among children aged under five who
live in Malatya city center.
In this cross-sectional epidemiological study, we covered first each regional
health center in Malatya city center, a total of 30 clusters out of the population
using a proportional systematic sampling method, and in turn, a sample size
of 704 children under five.
The frequency of injury-producing accidents was determined as 12.6%. The
majority of the accidents occurred in the house, and 65.3% of them were
due to falls; in 65.1%, accidents occurred in the presence of the mother.
The frequency of the accidents was highest for the 4-5 age group (14.1%)
and lowest among those .1 year. It was found that maternal age .30 (odds
ratio [OR]=1.9) and patient age of 4-5 years (OR=5.4) primarily affected the
chances of having an accident. A drawing of a kitchen setting, representing
a total of 13 accident-producing risks, was given to the mothers, who were
able to define an average of only 5.1�}0.2 risks.
The average number of risks defined by the mothers was found to be
associated with the age of the child, educational background of the mother,
her occupation, type of family, and monthly family income. No relation was
determined between the accident risk awareness and accident frequency.
In conclusion, the injury-producing accident frequency among children aged
under five in central Malatya was found to be high. Given the finding that
children have accidents in the presence of their mothers, it seems reasonable
to provide mothers with parenting applications and training programs to
reduce the home-based risks.
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