Poorer children ‘face greater injury risk’

Children from poorer backgrounds are at greater risk of being knocked down on the roads and injured at home, according to aresearch released yesterday.

The findings were part of guidance issued by good health champions NICE – the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence – on preventing injuries to under-15s.

NICE said three areas needed to be addressed to reduce the number of preventable injuries to children: better home safety assessments, road safety work, and better strategic working between the authorities.

In 2009, 65 under-15s were killed on Britain’s roads and 2,267 were seriously injured.

In 2008, 55 children died from “choking, suffocation or strangling”; 17 from drowning and 10 from “smoke, fire and flames”, the guidance said.

Youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds were more likely to be the victims with the report stating: “Children whose parents have never worked (or are long-term unemployed) are more likely to die from an unintentional injury compared to children whose parents are in higher managerial or professional occupations.”

Catherine Law, professor and head of NICE’s public health interventions advisory committee, said: “There is a clear link between increasing speed and the risk of death in the event of a vehicle hitting a child.

“We also know children from poorer families are at high risk because they’re more likely to be exposed to danger, for example, living in neighbourhoods with on-street parking, high speed traffic and few or no off-street play areas.”

NICE wants to see bath tap safety valves installed in homes to reduce the chances of children being scalded - and the installation of ‘window restrictors’ to prevent youngsters falling out.

Mike Kelly, professor and NICE public health director, said: “Injuries in the home are the leading cause of unintentional injuries for children aged under five – including falls, burns, scalds, drowning, suffocation and poisoning.

“We recommend that help should be offered to parents and carers who may not necessarily have the appropriate information or tools to identify risks in their homes or may not have the money to buy and install the right equipment.”

Heather Ward, honorary res-earch fellow at University College London, said: “Our aim is not to promote a nanny state where children can’t have fun or lead normal lives.

“Exposing children and young people to challenges can be beneficial, helping them to learn, develop and mature, but it is vital to stop serious injuries and deaths, which are avoidable, from happening.”

Errol Taylor, deputy chief executive of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: “RoSPA is delighted with the publication of this guidance from NICE.

“In particular, it reinforces the urgent need to tackle home accidents which are blighting so many young lives.

“We fervently hope that everyone who has a part to play in reducing home accidents takes this guidance to heart and acts on it quickly.”

Meanwhile, the Office for National Statistics, published research also suggesting parents in a manual occupations and the long-term unemployed were around 17 times more likely to lose an infant under one-year-old in a fatal accident than parents in higher managerial and professional jobs.

The research was based on almost 1,200 deaths of children aged between 28 days and 15-years-old in England and Wales between 2001 and 2003.