# Hospitalization information and burden of pediatric inpatients in transport accidents

## TL;DR

This study examines the hospitalization patterns and health burden of children injured in transport accidents in China, highlighting key demographics and injury types.

## Contribution

The study provides new insights into the epidemiological characteristics and hospitalization burden of pediatric transport accident inpatients in China.

## Key findings

- Males aged 1–3 years from East China were most commonly affected, with July being the peak month.
- Craniocerebral/nerve injuries were the most common, especially among non-pedal cyclist injured persons.
- Occupants of heavy transport vehicles or buses had the highest mortality and hospitalization burden.

## Abstract

Transport accidents are one of the leading causes of child morbidity and mortality worldwide and represent a significant public health burden. This study aimed to investigate the hospitalization information and burden of pediatric inpatients in transport accidents in China.

In this study, we collected the cover page of the medical records of pediatric inpatients in transport accidents using the Futang Research Center of Pediatric Development (FRCPD) database from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2021. Then, we extracted the epidemiological characteristics, including demographic characteristics, cases distribution, disease information, and hospitalization burden.

Among 36,455 included inpatients, males, aged 1–3 years, East China, July were dominant in different subgroups. In transport accidents, pedestrians were the most frequently type of injury (65.69%). Of all known lesions, craniocerebral/nerve injury was the more common results in pediatric inpatients in transport accidents (33.93%). In addition to pedal cyclists more susceptible to sport system injury, other types of injured person with transport accidents were mainly craniocerebral/nerve injury. In terms of the type of discharge, occupant of heavy transport vehicle or bus and people with craniocerebral/nerve injury had the highest mortality rate after hospitalization in all type and lesion of injured person groups, respectively. The largest hospitalization burden in the type of injured person was occupant of heavy transport vehicle or bus.

This study revealed that epidemiological characteristics and the main factor influencing the hospitalization information and burden of children with traffic accidents in China.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-024-18891-2.