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Ψ Accidents are the major cause of childhood death.
Ψ Factors related to childhood injuries (death):
1. Risk-taking -- especially boys
2. Irritability, inattentiveness, & negative mood
3. Poverty & low parental education are strongly associated with injury deaths.
 The strongest risk factor of all is low SocioEconomic Status (SES).
Ψ Preventing Childhood Injuries:
Ψ The word accident implies that children will be hurt regardless of our best efforts at prevention, the term injury control (or harm reduction) instead of accident prevention is now considered more appropriate.
Ψ Childhood injuries can be reduced through:
1. legislation
2. improvement of the physical environment
3. public education
Ψ Steps to Injury Control:
1. Think prevention!
2. Think protection!
3. Analyze injuries!
4. Advocate safety!
Ψ Three Levels of Prevention
1. In primary prevention the overall situation is structured to make
injuries less likely.
2. Secondary prevention averts harm in high risk situations, such as
stopping a car before it hits a pedestrian.
3. Tertiary prevention begins after the injury, limiting the damage it
causes.
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