It is hypothesised that psychosocial factors - such as hyperactivity and low family cohesion - contribute to the risk for child pedestrian injury (PI), even after controlling for known demographic risk factors. Participants were urban PI victims aged 5 to 12 years were recruited from one large, urban paediatric trauma centre in a large city. One hundred twenty-eight cases were matched to uninjured children on age, sex, race, location of residence, and parental education. Among matched cases: 70% were male, 41% were black, 33% were Hispanic, and 66% of the mothers had a high school education or less. Case-control comparisons were made on 19 psychosocial variables drawn from interviews and standardised tests, using one-tailed matched-pairs t tests and conditional logistic regression analyses. Cases had higher reported physical quotient [PQ] (P = .01), self-help quotient (P = .04), and family stress (P = .02), and lower family supportiveness (P = .03). Multivariate analyses confirmed that PQ was higher in cases (10-point increase: odds ratio (OR) = 1.32 [90% confidence interval (CI) 1.01-1.76], that stress was higher in cases (1 log increase: OR 2.13, [1.26-3.61]), and that cases had lower family supportiveness (25-point decrease: OR 1.43 [1.25-1.63]). It also identified household crowding as a factor for non-black cases (OR for increase of 0.25 people per room: 2.18, [1.31-3.62]). It is concluded that even when controlling for demographic risk, several family factors and one child factor place children at risk for PI. Clinicians may choose to use these as indicators for injury prevention counselling. Research on family effects may help clarify means to protect children who are demographically at risk for PI. (A)
Abstract