Fatal Injures To U.S. Infants, 1983-1991

Child Health And Human Development

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The National Center for Health Statistics linked infant birth and death files to assess the demographic, socioeconomic and prenatal risk factors associated with deaths due to injuries, SIDS and other causes in infants less than one year of age. Among children less than one year of age, 10,370 injury deaths were identified over a nine year period (1983-1991). Homicide, accidental suffocation, motor vehicle accidents, choking, fire, and drowning were, in decending order, the leading causes of injury-related death. Importantly, specific injuries corresponded with specific risk factors. These findings were published in Pediatrics. Deaths due to homicide, the leading cause of injury death in infancy, were examined separately to identify infants to be targeted for special interventions to prevent these deaths. Findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. A recent methodological analysis examined deaths classified as "undertermined intent." By evaluating risk factor profiles of such injuries, it may be possible to classify these injuries as likely intentional or likely unintentional. This study has enormous public health implications, as such injuries could increase death rates from homicide in the less than one year age group by 10-15% in the U.S. A manuscript reporting these findings was published in Injury Prevention. Current efforts are focused on analyses of infant deaths classified as unknown cause.