Incidence of hospitalized injuries among pregnant women in Maryland, 1979-1990.
BACKGROUND
Injuries are a leading cause of morbidity among pregnant women. We compared injuries among pregnant women and all women of reproductive age in a large defined population.


METHODS
Maryland hospital discharge data files from 1979-1990 were used to identify injuries in pregnant women and in all women 15-44 years of age. Injured pregnant women were defined as those hospitalized with concurrent ICD-9-CM discharge codes for injury and pregnancy.


RESULTS
The 80,311 hospitalizations with injury of women 15-44 years old included 2,185 hospitalizations of pregnant women. The incidence of hospitalized injury per 100,000 person-years was 460 for pregnant women and 608 for all women 15-44 years old. Median length of stay and cost per hospitalization were 3.0 days and $1,478 for pregnant women and 4.0 days and $1,666 for all women 15-44 years old. Leading causes of hospitalized injury in pregnant women were poisonings (16.9%), fractures (14.7%), sprains (10.9%), and contusions (8.0%). Compared to all women 15-44 years of age, pregnant women had significantly fewer hospitalizations for dislocations, fractures, poisoning, sprains, and intracranial injuries, and more hospitalizations for contusions and internal injuries. Based on limited information about external causes of injury, pregnant women had significantly fewer hospitalizations for poisoning, drowning/suffocation, and suicide attempts than all women 15-44 years of age.


CONCLUSIONS
Many hospitalizations of pregnant women are for relatively minor injuries requiring a short duration of stay, possibly to gauge the impact of the injury on the mother and the fetus. Since most pregnant women receive at least some medical care during pregnancy, prenatal visits represent an ideal time to implement strategies to prevent injuries.
Greenblatt
J F
JF
Injury Prevention Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Dannenberg
A L
AL
Johnson
C J
CJ
D000059:Accidents / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008396:Maryland / Q000453:epidemiology; D008429:Maternal Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000145:classification / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology*