Hospital admissions following childhood accidents.

This study comprises 260 children aged less than or equal to 13 yr hospitalized following accidents during a 9-mo period for a total of 923 hospital days. The ratio of boys to girls was 1.8:1. There were 21 road accidents and 104 accidents in the home; 75.4% of the accidents took place after school hours. Half of the admissions were for head trauma; 96 injuries were serious; and 78 patients required general anesthesia. In 67 families, there had been at least one previous childhood accident requiring hospitalization of the cohort child or sibling; factors in this group may have been the child's temperament or tension in the home.