Recorded presentation

Susan M. Smith, MPH, EdD, The UT Safety Center, The University of Tennessee, 1914 Andy Holt Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37996-2710, 865-974-1108, smsmith@utk.edu, Michael Ballard, EdD, Department of Health Promotion & Administration, Eastern Kentucky University, 420 Begley Building, Richmond, KY 40475, June D. Gorski, Department of Health and Safety Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1914 Andy Holt Ave, Knoxville, TN 37996, and Gregory Petty, PhD, UT Safety Center, The University of Tennessee, 1914 Andy Holt Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37996-2710.

Across the United States a wide variety of instruments and methodologies are being utilized to maintain effective child fatality surveillance programs. The goal of these programs is to go beyond surveillance and influence policy and programs to prevent future fatalities. One of the methods commonly employed is the use of child fatality review teams that meet by district within the state to review each child fatality following the death of a child 0-18. The prepared paper and related presentation will provide a description of the child fatality team process presently utilized within the state of Tennessee and information on its effectiveness. This paper will also present a profile of all child fatalities that occurred in the state of Tennessee during the year 2001. The discussion will focus on the importance of assessment in reducing future deaths and will provide information on the manner of death, cause of death, and level of disparity between ethnic groups present in each area for each child fatality ages 0-18 within the state of Tennessee. The significant differences in the cause of death and manner between children in rural and urban counties and those from different ethnic groups with in the state of Tennessee will be presented. In addition to providing a presentation of quantitative data, this paper will discuss the steps in effective assessment of data and provide examples of how data assessment can be utilized to improve management.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants attending this session will gain an understanding of the types of information reported by child fatality teams and the ways this information can be analyzed to assist in the targeting of future prevention programs to reduce fatalities for both violent and non-violent causes. Participants will gain a greater understanding of how to compare numbers of deaths within a specific population subgroup based on the 2000 census data and how important the accuracy and quality of reported data can be to future planning. Examples utilized in the presentation will include child fatality data from Tennessee that have been analyzed by ethnic group, age, manner of death, cause of death, rural or urban location. These examples are provided to allow participants to gain a first hand understanding of how fatality assessment data presented by subgroup can serve as a major resource to support the planning and implementation of future targeted prevention programs to reduce future fatalities and the injury of children.

Keywords: Infant Mortality, Injury Prevention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation