Incidence of childhood fractures in affluent and deprived areas: population based study

Substantial evidence exists that poorer children in England, Scotland, and Wales and have considerably higher rates of deaths from injury than their more affluent counterparts. 1 2 With the exception of specific groups, such as pedestrian injuries and poisoning, however, the socioeconomic profile on non-fatal injuries is less clear cut. 3 The English, Scottish, and Welsh health departments have set targets for a decrease in the assumed variation in incidence between affluent and deprived children in the absence of baseline data. In a population based incidence study we tested the hypothesis that fracture rates are similar among children from affluent and deprived areas.