[Unintentional injuries in the home environment: home safety].
OBJECTIVE
To review the characteristics of unintentional injuries and their impact on children and adolescents.


METHODS
Articles published between 2000 and 2005 in the MEDLINE, EBSCO, Proquest, SciELO, BVS and Google Scholar databases were selected. The authors used the keywords unintentional injuries, injuries, safe home, burns, falls, drowning, scorpions, snakes, poisoning, child, adolescent, mortality, injury control, and hospitalization. Some articles were evaluated based on the selected publications.


RESULTS
Unintentional injuries in the world and in Brazil are analyzed, and so are the behaviors currently adopted for injury prevention and control. The impact on mortality, on physical damage, and the economic burden of injuries are evaluated. Special emphasis is placed on home environment, approaching the effects of child development, social disparities and contextualization of home environment on children's world and vulnerabilities. The main types of events that cause physical damage to the child and adolescent in the home environment are described.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevention of injuries in the home environment is possible. In this case, health professionals have the challenge to reduce the consequences of unintentional injuries on the morbidity and mortality of children and young people in Brazil and in the whole world.
Paes
Carlos E N
CE
Departamento Científico de Segurança da Criança e do Adolescente, Sociedade Brasileira de Pediatria. paes@superig.com.br
Gaspar
Vera L V
VL
D000056:Accident Prevention / Q000379:methods*; D000061:Accidents, Home / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*