Parental Supervision and Unintentional Child Injury: A Pilot Study

Purpose: Classify parental supervision at the time of injury in a sample of young children and conduct case-crossover analyses to assess the association between supervision and injury.

Methods: Parents of children ≤ four years old at the time of seeking medical care for an acute unintentional injury were recruited for study. Data on the circumstances of injury were collected via interview. Recruitment is complete and data analysis has been initiated. Preliminary, descriptive data are available; case-crossover analyses will be complete October 1. Results: Of 100 eligible subjects, 58 (58%) interviews were completed. The majority of participants were mothers (97%), Caucasian (79%), married (60%), had a high school education (90%), and were employed (67%). Household income was <$0,000/year for 17% of participants and > $50,000 annually for 28%. The injured child's average age was 2.3 years; the majority were boys (52%). Most injuries occurred during a fall (50%), were lacerations (36%) or contusion/bruises (24%). 69% of the respondents were distracted (e.g., cooking, laundry) when the injury occurred. A majority (62%) of children were beyond their parent's reach but only 24% were out of the parent's view when injured. Supervision was intermittent for 53% and absent for 2%. Most parents (62%) agreed that "closer supervision probably would have prevented their child from getting hurt," yet 57% attributed the injury to "bad luck." Conclusions: Parents freely report circumstances of child injuries and supervision can be classified based on this information. Case-crossover analyses exploring the relationship between supervision and injury will be presented.