Do Social and Environmental Factors Affect the Emergency Service Admission Characteristics of Preschool-Aged Pediatric Trauma Patients?: A Prospective Study

Objective Studies related to the epidemiology of trauma play a major role in determining the health status of the communities living in the vicinity of the centers that they are conducted. We have found no epidemiological study related to emergency service admission conducted only on preschool-aged children in the literature. Our aim was to determine characteristics of trauma in this age group, to analyze encountered trauma types, and to investigate possible associations among epidemiological factors, characteristics of the trauma victims, and trauma itself in pediatric patients admitted to our emergency service. Methods We conducted a prospective study with patients aged 66 months and younger, admitted to Emergency Service of Istanbul Kanuni Sultan Suleyman Training and Research Hospital between July 1, 2015, and December 31, 2015. Data related to age, sex, occupational status of parents, number of siblings, Glasgow coma scale score, transport mode, admission time period of the day, general health status, type of trauma, the trauma site, involved body regions, radiologic imaging and laboratory results, consultations, clinical diagnosis and outcome, duration of emergency service stay, and treatment cost were collected and statistically analyzed. Results A total of 688 preschool-aged cases were admitted owing to trauma. The major mode of transport was a private vehicle (98.3%), and the major cause was falling (64.0%). The major traumatized body region was head and neck (51.0%), and the major diagnosis was soft tissue trauma (90.1%). The average duration of stay was 122.01 minutes and affected by sibling number, trauma type, and employment status. The total service fee was interrelated with the type of trauma and the site that trauma occurred; it also was strongly correlated with duration of emergency service stay. Conclusions Our results suggest that both in-hospital and social/environmental aspects should be improved to reduce the clinical and social burden of trauma.