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Child day care and home injuries involving playground equipment
Author(s) -
KOTCH J. B.,
CHALMERS D. J.,
LANGLEY J. D.,
MARSHALL S. W.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of paediatrics and child health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.631
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1440-1754
pISSN - 1034-4810
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1754.1993.tb00492.x
Subject(s) - medicine , day care , occupational safety and health , injury prevention , poison control , child care , human factors and ergonomics , suicide prevention , medical emergency , pediatrics , nursing , pathology
Abstract The increasing number of children attending child day care has led to a corresponding concern for their safety in the absence of parental care. Previous studies have documented that the majority of injuries occurring in child day care involve falls, and that the most common consumer product associated with such falls is playground equipment. This study describes New Zealand children less than 5 years of age admitted to hospital between 1979 and 1988 for injuries associated with playground equipment located at home or a child care facility. There were 528 hospitalized home injuries involving playground equipment, and 145 such day care injuries. Fractures were the most common injury, and the head was the most commonly involved body region. Lower limb injuries were the most severe. Among the differences between home and day care injuries were the type of equipment involved. Swings were disproportionately associated with head injuries.