Childhood Injury
In this issue, Birken and coauthors document a substantial decline from 1971 to 1998 until now, the rate of unintentional injury among Canadian children living in urban areas 1. They also determine that, in the case of these injuries, the difference in rates among rich children and poor children has fortunately not widened. Nevertheless, poor children are still twice as likely as those of affluent families to die from unintentional injuries. It takes at least acknowledge the percentage of this stratum that includes groups (eg., First Nations and refugee children) and admit that the issue deserves more thorough it is possible to do in this editorial .
The gap between mortality rates due to injury among children rich and poor children can cause moral outrage, but keep some of this outrage to the overall performance of Canada at the Injury Control children. In the second UNICEF Innocent Report, which focuses on infant mortality by type of injury, Canada ranks 18th among 26 OECD countries for deaths caused by intentional and unintentional injuries in children 1 to 14 years during the period from 1991 to 1992. Canada ranked well below the world leaders that are the countries of Scandinavia, which is not surprising, but he also scored lower than Spain, Greece and Australia. If Canada had the same results as Sweden, which ranked first, 2665 children would be alive today.
Birken and coauteurs1 suggest targeted interventions to close the gap in mortality rates due to injuries among children rich and poor children. In a related commentary, Howard3 recommends further promote injury prevention (see page 899). The Canadian Paediatric Society has adopted the latter strategy to promote public policy with particular success when it released its first report on Canadian public policy and health of children and adolescents4. In this report, the company highlights the policy as good as questionable on the injury in children.
It focuses on problems related to traffic as bicycle helmets, booster seats, all-terrain vehicles and GDL. The report establishes benchmarks against which to assess each situation in its own region and, with future editions, to monitor progress. The report highlights the anomalies and inconsistencies in public policy on health, as well as the opportunities and successes. For example, one province has an excellent program of graduated licensing, but there is no settlement, the two year olds can legally drive vehicles off road. Another province scores well against the measures listed in injury control, but a poor result in legislation on bicycle helmet.
The widespread adoption of the best legislation would benefit all Canadian children. Such an approach focuses on environmental change to reduce the number of injuries instead of relying only on programs that target the behavior of the person or family. In the context of this broad environmental approach, I suggest that we consider not only the interventions that target poor children, but we also look at the element of social context that is causing the disparity in mortality rates due to wounds – poverty among children. In December 1989, the last speech he gave in Parliament as leader of New Democratic Party, Ed Broadbent moved a motion that committed the federal government to end child poverty in Canada before 2005. The motion passed unanimously, including the Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Even after a change of ruling party, Lloyd Axworthy of the Christie government has reaffirmed the commitment of his administration
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Tags: acknowledge, affluent families, broad environmental approach, Canada, Canadian public policy, Childhood Injury, children, Greece and Australia, Lloyd Axworthy, monitor progress, party, policy and health, the injury in children., UNICEF Innocent Report,
Accident Attorneys | Engy McKayla, 24 Dec 10