Master of Public Health - MPH / Injuries continue to be a significant health problem in children. Injuries put more children in hospital than any other single cause. Injuries to children are due to falls, burns, poisoning, crushing, suffocation, traffic incidents and other causes both intentional and unintentional. Preschool children most commonly experience injuries in the home where they spend most of their time. The Western Cape Department of Health has decided to focus on the prevention of unintentional injuries to preschool children in and around the home. It is necessary to first determine the risk factors to these injuries before embarking on safety promotion and injury prevention programmes. To date there have been no studies documented in South Africa looking at the perceptions of the risk factors associated with household unintentional childhood injuries of first time mothers. This study therefore attempted to explore the perceptions of risk factors of first time mothers in Delft. Delft was chosen because it is a low-income area (which is recognised as being a risk factor to unintentional childhood injuries) and it is one of the pilot sites for the injury prevention programme of the Western Cape Department of Health. / South Africa

published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Master / Master of Public Health

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1996.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1996.

M.Ed. (Educational Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Drowning and near drowning is a significant problem nationwide and in San Bernardino County. Drowning in and around the home is the leading cause of accidental death of children under 5 years of age. In the United States, drowning is cited as the second most common cause of death for adolescents. This project was undertaken to help establish a funding source to develop a drowning prevention program in San Bernardino County. A request for assistance was obtained from the California Center for Childhood Injury Prevention and the California Kids' Plates Program.

Child pedestrian injury and mortality is an issue of significant public health concern in the city of Johannesburg, Gauteng, in South Africa. Since there is a paucity of studies in the last decade or more on fatal childhood traffic and non-traffic injuries in Johannesburg, this study aspires to address the disproportion in this domain of research, and provide more recent, and comprehensive empirical evidence over a ten-year period. The overarching aim of this study was to describe and examine the magnitude, circumstances, and neighbourhood characteristics of fatal pedestrian injuries among children (0-14 years) in Johannesburg for the period from 2001 to 2010. More specifically, the objectives of the study were: firstly, to provide a comprehensive epidemiological description of the magnitude, trends and occurrence of pedestrian mortality among children; secondly, to describe and examine the epidemiology of child pedestrian mortality in relation to children as motor vehicle passengers; thirdly, to describe and examine child pedestrian mortality in relation to non-traffic injuries, in particular, burns and drowning; and fourthly, to assess the influence of neighbourhood characteristics on child pedestrian mortality. The study conceptualised pedestrian road safety within an ecological systems framework. The study used quantitative descriptive, and multivariate logistic regression methods of analysis to examine child pedestrian mortality data. The study drew on data from the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System (NIMSS) and the Census 2001. The main findings indicated that black, male children aged 5 to 9 years (11.02/100 000) are the most vulnerable, and that mortality occurred predominantly during the afternoons and early evenings (12h00-16h00 and 16h00-21h00), over weekends, during school holidays, and to a lesser extent, during non-holiday months. In addition, neighbourhood characteristics that reflected concentrations of disadvantage, single female-headed households and residentially stable areas were associated with child pedestrian mortality. The study findings highlight the need for critical action in terms of investment in child pedestrian safety research, and appropriate prevention initiatives guided by stringent evidenced-based studies, and the design of safe pedestrian, vehicular and urban environments. / Psychology / D. Phil. (Psychology)

Child pedestrian injury and mortality is an issue of significant public health concern in the city of Johannesburg, Gauteng, in South Africa. Since there is a paucity of studies in the last decade or more on fatal childhood traffic and non-traffic injuries in Johannesburg, this study aspires to address the disproportion in this domain of research, and provide more recent, and comprehensive empirical evidence over a ten-year period. The overarching aim of this study was to describe and examine the magnitude, circumstances, and neighbourhood characteristics of fatal pedestrian injuries among children (0-14 years) in Johannesburg for the period from 2001 to 2010. More specifically, the objectives of the study were: firstly, to provide a comprehensive epidemiological description of the magnitude, trends and occurrence of pedestrian mortality among children; secondly, to describe and examine the epidemiology of child pedestrian mortality in relation to children as motor vehicle passengers; thirdly, to describe and examine child pedestrian mortality in relation to non-traffic injuries, in particular, burns and drowning; and fourthly, to assess the influence of neighbourhood characteristics on child pedestrian mortality. The study conceptualised pedestrian road safety within an ecological systems framework. The study used quantitative descriptive, and multivariate logistic regression methods of analysis to examine child pedestrian mortality data. The study drew on data from the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System (NIMSS) and the Census 2001. The main findings indicated that black, male children aged 5 to 9 years (11.02/100 000) are the most vulnerable, and that mortality occurred predominantly during the afternoons and early evenings (12h00-16h00 and 16h00-21h00), over weekends, during school holidays, and to a lesser extent, during non-holiday months. In addition, neighbourhood characteristics that reflected concentrations of disadvantage, single female-headed households and residentially stable areas were associated with child pedestrian mortality. The study findings highlight the need for critical action in terms of investment in child pedestrian safety research, and appropriate prevention initiatives guided by stringent evidenced-based studies, and the design of safe pedestrian, vehicular and urban environments. / Psychology / D.Phil. (Psychology)