Comparison of pedestrian injury characteristics between preschoolers and early school-aged children in Korea: a cross-sectional study.

Abstract

Purpose: Pedestrian traffic injuries pose a significant public health issue worldwide and remain prevalent in Korea despite ongoing efforts to improve traffic safety. To inform future initiatives aimed at addressing this problem, this study compared pedestrian injuries between preschoolers (aged 4-5 years) and early school-aged children (aged 6-7 years), using national data on pedestrian injuries in these groups.

Methods: This study analyzed secondary data from the 2020 Community-Based Severe Trauma Surveillance (2016-2020). Injury-related characteristics and outcome variables were compared between the two age groups. Additionally, the distribution of pedestrian injuries was analyzed by month, day, and time.

Results: Of 413 pedestrian injuries, 173 (41.9%) occurred in preschoolers and 240 (58.1%) occurred in early school-aged children. Injuries most frequently occurred in July for preschoolers (18.5%) and in June for early school-aged children (13.3%). Preschoolers experienced more injuries on Saturdays (22.0%), whereas early school-aged children had higher injury rates on Tuesdays and Thursday both (17.9%). Peak injury times were around 5 PM for preschoolers (16.2%) with a secondary peak at 9 AM (15.6%). For early school-aged children, 5 and 6 PM were peak injury times (both 14.6%), with a secondary peak at 3 PM (14.2%). The severe injury group (Injury Severity Score, 16-75) had a significantly higher mortality rate than the mild/moderate injury group (Injury Severity Score, 1-15; odds ratio, 5.65; P=0.006). Furthermore, the mortality rate was significantly higher at local emergency centers than at regional trauma centers (odds ratio, 4.00; P=0.011).

Conclusions: Understanding the distinct characteristics of pedestrian injuries among young children can inform targeted interventions and policies, ultimately mitigating this problem and improving traffic safety for children in Korea and globally.