title: Profiling the ethnic characteristics of domestic injuries in children younger than age 5 years.
abstract: The home remains a very common location for deadly injuries among children younger than 5 years. The aim of this study is to describe the demographic and injury characteristics of domestic injuries in children younger than 5 years. The National Trauma Data Bank's National Sample Program  data set was queried for children younger than 5 years with the injury site classified as home. Bivariate analysis was performed to determine unadjusted differences by ethnicity. Appropriate weight was applied to the sample to determine accurate national estimates. A total of 7,364 children,  representing 32,033 children, were analyzed. Overall mortality was 1.6 per cent. Among whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans, intentional injuries accounted for 6.5, 12.8, 10.2, 5.2, and 19.0 per cent of all injuries by intent, respectively (P < 0.003). Burn injury  was disproportionately higher in blacks (24.1%) followed by Native Americans and Asians (15.3 and 11.5%, P = 0.008). On multivariate analysis, black ethnicity was associated with increased length of stay. Intentional injuries were significantly higher in blacks and Native Americans  with black patients sustaining a disproportionately higher proportion of burn injury. Therefore, greater attention is needed to provide more effective home safety interventions to children among high-risk ethnic groups.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA. toyetunji@howard.edu
authors.forename: Tolulope A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Oyetunji
authors.forename: Adrienne A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Stevenson
authors.forename: Aderonke O
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Oyetunji
authors.forename: Sharon K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Onguti
authors.forename: Sarah A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Ames
authors.forename: Adil H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Haider
authors.forename: Benedict C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Nwomeh
mesh_terms: D000061:Accidents, Home / Q000401:mortality / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D044469:Racial Groups; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality