Huiyun Xiang ^1*, Lorann Stallones ², Guanmin Chen ³, Sarah G. Hostetler ⁴, Kelly Kelleher ⁵

¹ Children's Hospital
² Colorado Injury Control Research Center
³ Columbus Children's Hospital
⁴ Center for Injury Research and Policy, Columbus Children's Research Institute
⁵ Columbus Children Research Institute

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: xiangh{at}pediatrics.ohio-state.edu.

	Abstract

Objectives. We investigated nonfatal injury risk in U.S. children with disability. Disability was defined as a long-term reduction in ability to conduct social role activities, such as school or play, because of a chronic physical or mental condition. Methods. From 57,909 children 5-17 years old who participated in 2000-2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), we identified 312 children with vision/hearing disabilities, 711 with mental retardation, 603 with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD/ADD), and 403 with chronic asthma. We compared nonfatal injuries in the past 3 months between children with disabling conditions and those without using injury rates and logistic regression analyses. Results. Compared with children without disability, higher percentage of children with disabilities reported nonfatal injuries (4.2% for vision disability, 3.2% for mental retardation, 4.5% for ADHD/ADD, 5.7% for asthma vs. 2.5% for healthy children). After controlling for confounding effects of sociodemographic variables, children with disabilities, with the exception of mental retardation, had a statistically significantly higher injury risk than those without disabling conditions. Conclusions. A higher nonfatal injury risk was observed among U.S. children with disabling conditions.

Key Words: Adolescent Health, Disability, Injury/Emergency Care/Violence

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. A. Sinclair and H. Xiang Injuries Among US Children With Different Types of Disabilities Am J Public Health, August 1, 2008; 98(8): 1510 - 1516. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]