[Injuries in children under school age. A two-year case-load of a casualty department involving children under 7 years of age].

In order to contribute to current knowledge about injuries in pre-school children, the authors registered a material of 872 children under the age of seven years from a casualty department. 60% of these were boys. The annual incidence of 9% and the age distribution with the maximum for children aged 1-3 years both corresponded to the results of previous investigations. A steep increase in the sex difference could be demonstrated from the age of three years. This increase has not been described previously. The severity of the injuries was independent of the sex and the place of injury but depended upon the nature of the injury and the mechanism of the injury. Falls or jumps to lower levels were conspicuous by causing particularly many severe injuries. Children under the age of one year were particularly often injured by falls while children of one year constituted a high risk group for burns. These mechanisms of injury are obvious subjects for prophylactic measures.