Epidemiology of injuries in children under five years old in Qazvin, Iran

Background and aims: In Iran, according to the available data on health statistics, injuries are the as the common cause of death in different age groups after chronic heart diseases. The aim of this study was to present detailed information on eight common injuries. Methods: This study is an analysis on existing data (secondary study on recorded data) in Health Informatics System (HIS) available in Qazvin Health Management Office (QHMO), Iran. Permission to use these data was provided by researchers and the Health Research Ethics Board at the Qazvin University of Medical Sciences and also approved this analysis. Eight categories of injuries were derived from HIS and analyzed in SPSS software. Results: The total registered injuries in the whole population of Qazvin province was 22,821 (30% in females) from March 2014 to March 2015. From this, 1688 (7.3%) occurred in children under five years old. The rate of falling, violence, traffic and burns related injuries were in the top. About 69% of total injuries were in urban, and near 13% in villages. Conclusion: Children are the main victims of adults’ car crashes. Most of the children’s injuries take place at homes and roads. Some educational programs in order to increase children’s safety are in progress. There is not a good system to evaluate these interventions’ outcomes, and as such doing more study in this field is needed.