Evaluation of Gender Difference in Pediatrıc Trauma Patients Admitted to The Emergency Department

Aim:A significant proportion of pediatric trauma patients admitted to the emergency department are injured by preventable causes. Accidental injuries are the most common causes of deaths in childhood. The purpose of this study was to analyze the demographic features of the parents and the gender difference of the cases in pediatric patients with trauma admitted to the emergency department (ED).Materials and Methods:Over a 1-year period (April 2015 through May 2016), a total of 502 consecutive paediatric patients who presented to our tertiary-care university hospital ED with symptoms of trauma of various causes (falling from a height, injury, burni traffic accident and physical abuse assault) were enrolled in this prospective clinical study.Results:In this study, the boy to girl gender ratio was found to be 1.52 (p = 0.868). The mean ages were 7.74 ± 4.97 in boys and 7.67 ± 5.25 in girls. 17.2% of the boys and 21.1% of the girls were detected fracture on direct radiographs (p=0.306). Upper extremity fractures were encountered more frequently than other fractures. The frequency of falling from a height was the first among all cases of trauma with the rate of 69.3%, 42.4% of which occurred in boys and 26.9% in girls (p=0.559). The rates of upper extremity injuries were 19.9% for boys and 15.7% for girls (p=0.126). The rates of head injuries were 22.5% for boys and 12% for girls (p=0.177). When the type of injury was evaluated, the rate of contusion was 60%, 36.3% of which occurred in boys and 23.7% in girls (p=0.952). When the parents of the pediatric trauma patients were classified according to their educational status, the largest group consisted of primary school graduated parents with rates of 41.4% for mothers (p=0.080) and 37.3% for fathers (p=0.008). 46.0% of the pediatric trauma patients were the first children of their families, 27.3% of which were boys and 18.7% were girls (p=0.657).Conclusion:We emphasized the importance of raising awareness about the issue at the individual and community-based level and the necessity of increasing the protective measures for indoor and outdoor accidents in order to be able to create a safe environment so that the pediatric trauma patients can be reduced in our country and in the world