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BACKGROUND: Serious fall-related injuries among children and youth are a preventable public health issue; however, there is a paucity of data and indicators specific to these injuries. We aimed to report an indicator of serious fall injuries within the paediatric population aged 0-19 years in Ontario, Canada. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: Examine the data by age group, sex and mechanism of injury. METHODS: All fall-related hospitalisations in Ontario among children and youth aged 0-19 years from 2010 to 2019 were analysed. International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision diagnostic codes defined serious and non-serious paediatric fall injuries. Rates per 100 000 population were calculated. We report serious fall injuries by age group, sex and mechanism of injury. RESULTS: Falls accounted for 22 948 non-serious fall hospitalisations (rate=761.1/100 000; 95% CI 751.3 to 770.9) and 3652 serious fall-related hospitalisations (rate=120.9/100 000; 95% CI 117.0 to 124.8) in Ontario from 2010 to 2019. The highest rate of serious falls among females was observed in the 0-4 age group (150.3/100 000; 95% CI 137.2 to 163.3), while for males, the highest rate was in the 15-19 age group (206.9/100 000; 95% CI 193.0 to 220.7). Overall, males (rate=152.7, 95% CI 146.6 to 158.9) reported higher rates of serious fall injuries compared with females (rate=87.5, 95% CI 82.7 to 92.3). CONCLUSIONS: A significant number of preventable serious fall hospitalisations occurred in Ontario from 2010 to 2019 with the highest rate in older males, followed by younger females. The serious fall indicator identifies important information such as target populations and mechanisms that can be used to prioritise prevention efforts to reduce the burden of fall injury in the paediatric population.
Richmond et al. (Thu,) studied this question.