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Jung and Jung: Epidemiology of Childhood Injury in Korea
Focused Issue of This Month
Childhood Injuries
Journal of the Korean Medical Association

Journal of the Korean Medical Association 2008; 51(3): 208-213.

Published online: 31 March 2008

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2008.51.3.208

Epidemiology of Childhood Injury in Korea

Koo Young Jung, MD, Jin Hee Jung, MD

Department of Emergency Medicine, Ewha Womans University College of Medicine, Korea. kyjung@ewha.ac.kr

Copyright © 2008 Korean Medical Association

Abstract

Injury is the leading cause of mortality in children. The mortality from injury in children in Korea is higher than those in other developed countries in OECD. We analyzed the characteristics of mortality and hospital admission in childhood injury. The leading cause of mortality is traffic accident, followed by drowning and falls. The most common body site of injury leading to mortality is the head. The severity of most injuries is mild and the admission rate is about 15%. The most common causes of hospital admission are traffic accident and falls. Of traffic accidents, pedestrian injury is the most frequent in all children, but occupant injury is more common in children under age 4. The common place of injury is home, and most injuries are preventable for children under 4 years old.

Keywords: Child, Injury, Epidemiology, Traffic accident, Mortality

Figures and Tables

Figure 1
Injury related death from 1983~2006 in Korea. The proportion of childhood mortality was decreased since 1983. Childhood injury mortality was more than 10% until 1990, but that was about 3% since 2004.
jkma-51-208-g001
Table 1
Comparison of childhood injury data by mortality, hospital discharge, and emergency room entrance
jkma-51-208-i001

*Annual report on the cause of death statistics, 2004

†Hospital discharge injury surveillance data, 2005

‡Emergency department information system, 2005

References

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