Epidemiology of Domestic accidents of young children in Tunis: Impact of health professionals training on data collection quality

Abstract

Background: In Tunisia, several studies on domestic injuries have been carried out on children attending care facilities. Nevertheless,there is a lack of data on incidence and kinds of child domestic injuries amongst general population because of absence of a reliable data collect system.
Aim : To estimate the incidence and kinds of domestic injuries through a prospective survey “here-there” within two cohorts of young children attending two mother and child protection centers (MCPC) in Tunis during the three first years of their life and to analyze the importance of health professional training in improving data collect.
Methods: A prospective study “here-there” was carried out on two cohorts of children in two mother and child protection centers (MCPC) between January 2007 and December 2009. Only children aged less than 3 months at their first contact with the centers were included and followed up until age of 3 years. In the MCPC2
(cohort2), health personnel have been trained on data collection importance related to child domestic accident and asked to monitor accidents by calling parents while a phone line got available for this aim. In the MCPC1, health personnel was asked to work as they used to do and to collect data on child domestic injuries when children attend the center.
Results: 192/435 domestic accidents were recorded within cohort 2 vs only 1/686 within cohort 1. Annual incidence rate was 14.7% for the cohort 2. The kinds of accidents were: falls 78.2% (falls from high plans 84.6%), injuries15.1% (injury by cutting things 58.6%),burns 5.7% (burns by hot liquid 54.5%), intoxications 1%. In terms of damages, we recorded 4 cases of broken bones (thighbone, elbow,handwrist), stitches in 11 cases, broken teeth in 3 cases and nail pulled out in one case. No death was recorded. Training impact on accident prevention was not studied.
Conclusion: Child domestic accidents are relatively frequent. Health personnel training allows to improve data. The kinds of recorded accidents indicate the need to educate parents on best practices towards strengthening prevention.