Childhood injuries (health and wellbeing needs in South Tyneside)

Evidence for interventions

  • Play, sport and exploration is an important part of child development and must be recognised but measures can be taken to reduce the incidence and or severity of injuries. (NICE)
  • Short- Term Average healthcare cost of Individual Injury - £2,494 (Pollinder et al, 2008)
  • Wider costs of a serious home accident - £33,200 (Walter, 2010).
  • Traumatic Brain Injury - £4.89m

Evidence for Further Intervention

  • Approaches to preventing unintentional injuries range from education (providing information and training) to product or environmental modifications and enforcement (regulations and legislation).
  • It has been suggested that the most effective strategies use a combination of approaches (British Medical Association 2001). Experience from European countries with the best safety records show that positive leadership, together with concerted efforts to provide safer physical and social environments, can reduce unintentional injuries (Sethi et al. 2008).
  • For injuries in the home setting successful interventions to reduce injuries have included:
    • The provision of smoke alarms (however effectiveness depends on regular use and maintenance of alarms)
    • The provision and use of other home safety devices (cupboard catches, window locks, stair guards)
    • Safety education programmes (sometimes combined with home safety devices)
    • Child health and social care providers should provide home safety interventions including education and access to free, low cost or discounted safety equipment as part of their child health and well-being programmes'.

  • For sports and leisure injuries successful interventions to reduce injuries have included:

    • Reducing the height of playground equipment
    • Modifying playing surfaces
    • The use of protective sports equipment
    • Use of skills training programmes for young sports player
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