Unintentional injury—including
motor vehicle crashes, falls, and
cuts—is a major risk to children’s
health and is the leading cause of
death for children over 1 year of age.
For the NSCH, parents of children
aged 5 and under were asked whether
their child had required medical
attention for an accidental injury
over the past year. Overall, over
9 percent of children were reported
to have experienced such an injury.
Children living in small rural areas
appear to be slightly more likely to
experience injury than children in
urban areas (10.0 versus 9.3 percent,
respectively). The injury rate of
children living in large rural areas
(9.4 percent) is similar to that of
children in urban areas.
This slightly higher injury rate in
small rural areas is no longer evident
once the data are further divided
by other demographic variables. For
instance, the past-year injury rate
among children with family incomes
below the Federal poverty level (FPL)
is highest in large rural areas (12.0
percent) and lowest in urban areas
(6.7 percent); among children with
family incomes of 100-199 percent
of FPL, rates are highest in small
rural areas (12.1 percent) and lowest
in large rural areas (7.6 percent).
The rates among children with higher
family incomes are as varied as
those among children with lower
family incomes.
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