Gallagher Laura, Curran Emma, Rosato Michael, Leavey Gerard
Bamford Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing, Ulster University, Northern Ireland, BT52 1SA, UK.
Inj Epidemiol. 2025 Sep 2;12(1):54. doi: 10.1186/s40621-025-00603-y.
Although health inequalities associated with ethnic disadvantage are of increasing concern to policymakers in the United Kingdom (UK), evidence on ethnicity and childhood unintentional injuries is unclear. Given that people from some minority ethnic communities face disproportionate disadvantage such as unemployment, poverty, and insecure and low-quality housing, children from these families might be expected to have higher risks of unintentional injuries compared to their White counterparts.
To determine whether the likelihood of unintentional childhood injuries vary among children from minority ethnic backgrounds and whether this variation can be explained by maternal migration status and variables relating to household composition, parenting attitudes and behaviours.
We used logistic regression to analyse data from 12,717 children using sweeps two (2003-2004) and three (2005-2006) of the Millennium Cohort Study. Unintentional childhood injuries were measured in the third sweep of data collection when the children were aged five. Exposure variables included socioeconomic information, ethnicity, housing, household composition, maternal migration status and variables relating to parenting, values, and behaviours.
Children from some minority ethnic backgrounds (Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Black African, and 'other') were less likely to be injured than White children. Having a mother who was born outside the UK explained the relationship in Pakistani and Bangladeshi children. We observed differences in variables such as parenting style, values, household composition, and smoking and alcohol use among minority ethnic and migrant groups, but these variables did not statistically explain the differences in childhood injury.
Children from minority ethnic families in the UK are less likely to sustain unintentional injuries compared to their White peers, with this protective effect primarily evident among children whose mothers were born outside the UK. While cultural and behavioural differences were observed between ethnic groups, these did not statistically explain the injury variation. The findings emphasise the importance of disaggregating ethnicity and migrant status in injury prevention research and investigating the mechanisms underlying lower injury rates among first-generation migrant families.
尽管英国政策制定者日益关注与种族劣势相关的健康不平等问题，但关于种族与儿童意外伤害的证据尚不明确。鉴于一些少数族裔社区的人们面临着诸如失业、贫困以及住房不安全和质量差等不成比例的劣势，与白人儿童相比，来自这些家庭的儿童可能更容易遭受意外伤害。
确定少数族裔背景儿童遭受意外伤害的可能性是否存在差异，以及这种差异是否可以由母亲的移民身份以及与家庭构成、育儿态度和行为相关的变量来解释。
我们使用逻辑回归分析了来自千禧队列研究第二轮（2003 - 2004年）和第三轮（2005 - 2006年）的12717名儿童的数据。在数据收集的第三轮中，当儿童五岁时测量其意外伤害情况。暴露变量包括社会经济信息、种族、住房、家庭构成、母亲的移民身份以及与育儿、价值观和行为相关的变量。
一些少数族裔背景（巴基斯坦、孟加拉、非洲黑人以及“其他”）的儿童比白人儿童受伤的可能性更小。母亲出生在英国境外这一因素解释了巴基斯坦和孟加拉儿童的这种关系。我们观察到少数族裔和移民群体在育儿方式、价值观、家庭构成以及吸烟和饮酒行为等变量上存在差异，但这些变量在统计学上并不能解释儿童伤害方面的差异。
与白人同龄人相比，英国少数族裔家庭的儿童遭受意外伤害的可能性较小，这种保护作用在其母亲出生在英国境外的儿童中尤为明显。虽然不同种族之间存在文化和行为差异，但这些差异在统计学上并不能解释伤害差异。研究结果强调了在伤害预防研究中区分种族和移民身份以及调查第一代移民家庭伤害率较低背后机制的重要性。
