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Risk factors predisposing to pedestrian road traffic injury in children living in Lima, Peru: a case–control study
  1. Jeffrey M Pernica1,
  2. John C LeBlanc2,
  3. Giselle Soto-Castellares3,4,
  4. Joseph Donroe3,5,
  5. Bristan A Carhuancho-Meza6,
  6. Daniel G C Rainham7,8,
  7. Robert H Gilman3,9
  1. 1Department of Pediatrics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
  2. 2Department of Pediatrics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
  3. 3Asociación Benéfica PRISMA, Lima, Peru
  4. 4Department of Emerging Infectious Diseases, US Naval Medical Research Unit No. 6, Lima, Peru
  5. 5Fogarty International Center/Ellison Medical Foundation Research Fellow, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  6. 6Instituto Nacional de Salud del Niño, Lima, Peru
  7. 7Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
  8. 8Environmental Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
  9. 9Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
  1. Correspondence to John C LeBlanc, Department of Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University, IWK Health Centre, 5850 University Avenue, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; John.LeBlanc{at}dal.ca

Abstract

Objective To describe the epidemiology of pedestrian road traffic injury in Lima and to identify associated child-level, family-level, and school travel-related variables.

Design Case–control study.

Setting The Instituto Nacional de Salud del Niño, the largest paediatric hospital in the city.

Participants Cases were children who presented because of pedestrian road traffic injury. Controls presented with other diagnoses and were matched on age, sex and severity of injury.

Results Low socioeconomic status, low paternal education, traffic exposure during the trip to school, lack of supervision during outside play, and duration of outside play were all statistically significantly associated with case–control status. In multivariate logistic regression, a model combining the lack of supervision during outside play and the number of the streets crossed walking to school best predicted case–control status (p<0.001).

Conclusions These results emphasise that an assessment of children's play behaviours and school locations should be considered and integrated into any plan for an intervention designed to reduce pedestrian road traffic injury. A child-centred approach will ensure that children derive maximum benefit from sorely needed public health interventions.

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Footnotes

  • Funding IWK Health Centre Research Office, Halifax, NS, Canada. The American Academy of Pediatrics.

  • Competing interests None.

  • Ethics approval Research ethics boards of Dalhousie University, the Asociación Benéfica PRISMA (an associated NGO), and the Instituto Nacional de Salud del Niño.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed

  • Data sharing statement Additional unpublished data accessible upon request.