Epidemiology of Childhood Injury in Korea

Koo Young Jung; Jin Hee Jung

doi:10.5124/jkma.2008.51.3.208

J Korean Med Assoc > Volume 51(3); 2008 > Article

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: March 31, 2008

DOI: http://dx.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

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.

Child; Injury; Epidemiology; Traffic accident; Mortality

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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.

Table 1

Comparison of childhood injury data by mortality, hospital discharge, and emergency room entrance

^*Annual report on the cause of death statistics, 2004

^†Hospital discharge injury surveillance data, 2005

^‡Emergency department information system, 2005