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Paediatric Emergency Medicine
Epidemiology and mapping of child road casualties
  1. Alexandra Celeste Smith1,
  2. Sarah J Jones2,
  3. David Hanna3
  1. 1 School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
  2. 2 Health Protection Division, Public Health Wales, Cardiff, UK
  3. 3 Paediatric Emergency Department, University Hospital of Wales Healthcare NHS Trust, Cardiff, UK
  1. Correspondence to Alexandra Celeste Smith, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Cardiff, UK; SmithAC6{at}cardiff.ac.uk

Abstract

Background Paediatric trauma following road traffic collisions (RTCs) represents a significant public health burden. This study aims to influence road safety in Wales.

Methods Police (STATS19) and healthcare databases covering all or part of Wales were analysed, compared and mapped from 2017 to 2019 for RTCs involving children aged 0–16 years.

Results STATS19 under-reports RTCs, recording 1859 road traffic injuries (RTIs) for all Wales compared with 1170 RTIs at one tertiary hospital in South East Wales. Boys aged 11–16 years had the highest injury rates (92.2 per 100 000 population). Injuries peaked at school journey times. The rate ratio of injury was 2.0 (95% CI 1.7 to 2.4) for the most deprived compared with the least deprived areas.

Conclusion Improvements in data quality are essential to influence road policy. Improved road safety is needed in all communities but must be further enhanced in the most deprived areas, where the burden of injury is highest.

  • paediatric emergency medicine
  • epidemiology

https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-323331

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    Footnotes

    • Presented at This work has been presented as an ePoster at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Conference (RCPCH) 2021 and was published as a conference abstract in association with RCPCH on 30 September 2021 in the online Archives of Disease in Childhood.

    • Contributors Each of the authors has met the criteria for authorship. All authors contributed to the design of the study and concepts behind the report. ACS collected and analysed the data. ACS drafted the report, and SJJ and DH edited and provided comments. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

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    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.