A population-based comparison of injuries among farm children to non-farm children in Alberta, 1999-2010

• Author / Creator

  Kim, Kyungsu

• Objectives - To systematically review literature on rural-urban differences in pediatric injury incidence and to examine incidence of all-cause injury, agricultural injury, and injury-related health care utilization for farm children compared to several groups of non-farm children under 18 years of age in Alberta, Canada.
  Methods – A systematic review examined population-based observational studies published from 1970 to August 2013, that compared rates or health care outcomes of injury between rural and urban children (<18) living in Canada or the United States. Three of population-based retrospective cohort studies followed farm, rural, First Nations (FN), urban children from 1999 to 2010 to examine incidence of injury and related health services using the linkage of four administrative health databases (data from physician visits to deaths). Person-time incidence rates and adjusted hazard ratios were calculated based on injury episode.
  Results – Systematic review demonstrated that rural children sustained a higher rate of overall injury, particularly from MVC and suicide than urban children. Primary studies showed farm and rural children, especially rural FN children, had higher rates and greater utilizations of overall injury, especially for severe injuries, than urban children. This trend was consistent for most injury mechanisms but more notably for other land transport (e.g., ATVs, animal riding, agricultural vehicle-related injuries), natural/environmental (e.g., bees, insects, animals-related), and unintentional firearm-related injuries. Farm and rural non-FN children were at a greater risk of agricultural injuries, more outstandingly for farm-animal and machinery-related injuries, than rural FN and urban children. Agricultural injuries appeared to be more unintentional and lethal. Rural FN children, followed by rural non-FN and farm children, experienced greater utilization of higher levels of medical facilities, thinner shapes of injury pyramid, and greater proportions of pre-hospital deaths.
  Conclusions – Greater burden of injury for farm and rural children and specific patterns per group indicate a need for targeted and specialized injury prevention strategies for higher-risk mechanisms in each group, attention for agricultural injury controls to extended populations, comprehensive intervention strategies for underlying inter-related causes of injury in rural areas, and an advanced pediatric trauma care for serious injuries the ED for efficient and timely care in rural areas.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Injuries
  • Children
  • Farm

• Graduation date

  Spring 2014

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3VH5P

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.