title: Incidence and Impact of Unintentional Childhood Injuries: A Community Based Study in Rural South India.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the incidence of unintentional childhood injuries and to assess the impact of injury during childhood.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a cross sectional study, conducted in 13 clusters of a rural block in Vellore. Children were screened by two-stage cluster sampling method by two weeks and three months recall method. The primary caregivers of injured children were administered a questionnaire to assess the impact of the injury.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Childhood injury related morbidity was 292.5 per 1000 y. Children between 10 and 14 y (4.6%) and boys (4.5%) had a higher rate of injury. Fall (43.1 %) was the most common cause of injury followed by RTIs (Road Traffic Incidents- 27.6%). Work absenteeism for primary caregivers ranged from 1 to 60 (IQR 2-7) days. Sickness absenteeism ranged from 1 to 45 d with a mean of 7.64 (IQR 2-7) days. Half of the children missed school after an injury. The days spent with temporary disability ranged from 1 to 60 d with a mean of 11.79 (IQR 2-7) d and 7.73% had permanent disability.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Unintentional childhood injury is a neglected public health problem which leads to sickness absenteeism and disability. Boys and older children are the most common victims of injury. There is a need for establishing state or nationwide injury registries to help understand accurate estimates of disability-adjusted life year (DALY) and loss of productivity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health, Bangalore Baptist Hospital, Bangalore, Karnataka, 560024, India. leeberk2003@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Leeberk Raja
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8642-1348
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Inbaraj
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Anuradha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rose
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Kuryan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: George
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Anuratha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bose
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D012424:Rural Population; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*
keywords: Disability; Incidence; Sickness absenteeism; Unintentional childhood injuries