Children and Home Injuries

An average of 2,096 children younger than 15 die each year in the United States as a result of a home injury. Fires and burns, choking and suffocation, and drowning and submersions are leading causes of unintentional home injury death among children in this age group. Fire and burn deaths are the leading cause for children age 1 to 14 and the second leading cause for children younger than 1. For children younger than 10, falls are among the top five causes of unintentional home injury death. Note that fall and poisoning deaths for children less than a year old are tied as the fourth leading cause of home injury death in this age group, each with a rate of 0.34 per 100,000 persons less than 1 year old (Table 4.2).

Children between the ages of 1 and 4 have the highest rate of unintentional nonfatal home injury, compared with all other childhood age groups (Table 4.4). Falls account for half (49.5%) of these injuries, with an annual rate of 3,965 per 100,000 children between the ages of 1 and 4. Falls also account for nearly half (47.1%) of the nonfatal injuries experienced by children less than a year old. From 5 years on, this percentage falls to approximately 30 percent. By the time children are between 10 and 14, home injuries involving bicycles or other pedal equipment (occurring in driveways or backyards, for example) become a leading cause, accounting for an average of 66,737 nonfatal injuries each year.