INJURIES IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN AND THE POSSIBILITIES OF THEIR PREVENTION

INTRODUCTION: Injuries in preschool children are one of the leading causes of child’s morbidity and mortality in today’s world. OBJECTIVE: Explore the prevalence and the type of injuries in preschool children as well as the parental behavior regarding injury prevention and to investigate the interconnections between these variables. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The cross-sectional study included 218 parents of preschool children from the Županja area, in Eastern Croatia, who filled out an anonymous questionnaire during the April of 2015 that consisted from questions regarding sociodemographic and socioeconomic indicators related to the family and the participant’s behavior regarding injury prevention. RESULTS: There were 30.3 % of the participants whose preschool children suffered an injury and 86.4% of those suffered a minor injury. In most of the examined parental behaviors, parents have shown adequate accident prevention behavior, while in the three examined behaviors (the existence of a security barrier that prevents access to the stairs, the existence of a security barrier that prevents access to the windows and the installation of smoke detectors) parents have shown inadequate behavior which indicates the need for their additional education. CONCLUSION: This study can serve as a database for future investigations of accidents of preschool children and the possibilities of their prevention. Additional studies are needed to understand parental behavior in relation to the prevention of their children accidents