A community based cross-sectional study on the magnitude of childhood injuries during the past one year among tribal children aged 1–14 Years in Dharmapuri district, Tamil Nadu

Background

Unintentional injuries are a significant public health problem among children, especially in developing nations, which is claiming millions of lives annually. They are of noteworthy concern from the age of one, which contributes both to morbidity and mortality throughout childhood and adolescence. The study aimed to assess the prevalence of childhood injuries in the past year among tribal children aged 1–14 years in Dharmapuri district, Tamil Nadu.

Materials and method

A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among the parents of the selected children in the tribal region of Sitheri, Tamil Nadu. The study was conducted using a piloted, semi-structured questionnaire. Data on unintentional injuries from the past one year was collected.

Results

Among the 331 children, 24.2 % (95 % CI: 0.196–0.291) of the children were injured. Among those injured, the majority of them had fall-related injury (16 %), followed by bite/animal-related injury (3.6 %), burn-related injury (2.4 %) and road traffic-related injures (1.5 %). Drowning and other miscellaneous injuries contributed 0.3 % each and there was no case of poisoning reported among the tribal children. Among the injured children, 79.5 % were male, and 20.5 % were female.

Conclusion

Falls were the most common injury among children. To reduce the magnitude of unintentional injury among children, actions related to sensitizing the policy measures and providing education and awareness to the community must be implemented to provide a better and safer environment for the children.