Lower incidence of unintentional injury with older age in children in China? A meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the relationship between children's age and the incidence of unintentional injuries, and giving some basic data on the guidance for the prevention of unintentional injuries in children aged 0 to 18 years in China.

Methods: The literatures on the incidence of unintentional injury in children included in China from 2008 to 2018 were analyzed by meta-analysis method. The data were retrieved according to the guidance of Cochrane Systematic review. A meta-analysis was carried out on homogeneous studies, and then subgroup analysis was conducted according to age group. Publication bias was also evaluated. Stata software (version 15.0) and SPSS software (version 18.0) were used to analyze the gathered information.
Results: A total of 3，303 related pieces of literature were reviewed. Of the 37 that met the inclusion criteria. The meta-analysis showed that total sample sizes were 77，023, and the pooled incidence of unintentional injury is 20%, 95%CI (17%-23%), (P< 0.001). Subgroup analysis showed the following results: the incidence are 15%, 23%, 20% and 20% for aged in “0-2”, “3-5”, “6-11”, “12-18” subgroups, respectively. However, the trend of decreased incidence of unintentional injury with older age in children was not significant.

Conclusions: The pooled incidence of unintentional injuries in children is high. Based on accessible literature, the incidence between different age subgroup were not statistically significant. We should pay attention to the incidence of unintentional injuries in children of all age subgroups.