Foreign body injuries in children: Are the younger siblings doomed?

BACKGROUND AND

OBJECTIVES

Foreign body injury (FBI) is a considerable public health issue for children. Although the relationships of FBI with age, gender, and objects of injury have been studied, the extent to which other demographic factors influence FBI is unclear. We hypothesized that the risk for FBI increases with the number of children in the household.

DESIGN AND SETTINGS: This was a retrospective analysis of 223 patients aged 2-10 years who presented to the emergency department of an inner-city pediatric hospital and who were found to have FBI.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

The guardians were contacted via phone to examine the associations of FBI with income, parental educational level, number of children in the household, and birth order while controlling with a matched population of 250 patients. Statistical analyses using frequencies and univariate and multivariate analyses were performed.

RESULTS

For each increase in the number of children, the risk of FBI increased 1.44-fold (OR = 1.442). With each increase in the number of caregivers, the risk of a FBI decreased 33% (OR = 0.673). With each increase in income category, the risk of a FBI decreased 59% (OR = 0.413).

CONCLUSION

The results suggest that an increase in the number of children in a household is associated with a greater risk of FBI.