Medically attended nonfatal injuries among preschool-age children: national estimates.

We used data from the 1991 Longitudinal Follow-up to the National Maternal and Infant Health Survey to examine cumulative risk of injury among children from birth to three years old and to provide national-level cause-specific estimates of medically attended nonfatal injuries for this age group. Almost 25% of the 8,145 children reportedly received care for an injury between birth and three years old. Among the children with injuries, 25.4% reportedly had more than one medically attended injury. Risk of reported injury was higher for boys and upper level socioeconomic groups. Falls were the most frequently reported injury (51%), followed by burns (11.7%), striking or cutting injuries (9.8%), poisonings (9.8%), and injuries from devices not intended for the child's use (7.9%). Nonfatal injuries for preschool-age children present a pattern strikingly different from that of fatal injuries among this age group, and the need for this data is important in targeting prevention strategies.