title: Children's perceptions about falls and their prevention: a qualitative study from a rural setting in Bangladesh.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Childhood falls is a major public health problem in Bangladesh. In-depth understanding of the situation by the target groups and their families is necessary for successful development, implementation and evaluation of any intervention. The study aimed at knowing the views of Bangladeshi rural children about childhood falls and their suggestions for prevention.
  
  
  METHODS
  Children of 10-17 were selected purposely from 4 villages of Sherpur Sadar upazila (sub-district), Sherpur district of Bangladesh. Six focus group discussions and ten in-depth interviews were conducted during July-August 2010 for this study. Gender and education of the participants were considered. Major themes were identified, coded and categorized from content analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants stated that young children (<5 years of age) and boys appeared to be the main victims of falls and majority of these injuries occurred in and around the households. Boys commonly fall from the tree around their premises and high places. Girls usually fall when they remain busy in household chores and playing with friends around their premises. Participants also mentioned that children mostly sustained injury when they are unsupervised. Supervision, public awareness and putting barriers (e.g. door barrier, putting pillow and use net around the bed etc.) were suggested as the preventive measures.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings of this study could be considered as part of knowledge-base in designing interventions to address childhood falls.
authors.affiliation: Division of Social Medicine, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden. smchow_dhaka@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Salim Mahmud
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Chowdhury
authors.forename: Leif
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Svanström
authors.forename: Lars-Gunnar
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Hörte
authors.forename: Rabiul Awal
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Chowdhury
authors.forename: Fazlur
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rahman
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000293:Adolescent; D001459:Bangladesh; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012424:Rural Population