About

This study examined how injuries affect children and their families. Injuries are the leading cause of death and a major cause of disabilities for Canadian children and youth. Despite the major burden that injuries represent, we know relatively little about the long term quality of life outcomes after injury. We followed parents and children between the ages of 0 and 16 years who had attended the BC Children’s Hospital for an injury over the span of a year. We were interested in learning:

1. How injuries impact a child’s health
2. What might influence how a child recovers from injury
3. How families deal with having an injured child
4. What changes there are in a child’s quality of life in the year after the injury

A total of 378 families were enrolled in the study. The majority of children in our sample were engaged in leisure or physical activity at the time of their injury. A small minority of children had residual effects of their injury on year later and ongoing rehabilitation support should be considered in reducing recuperation time. The vast majority of injured children recuperated quickly, regardless of severity of injury.

Funded By

Generously supported by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research 2010-2015

Resources

Yates, M. T., Ishikawa, T., Schneeberg, A., & Brussoni, M. (2016). Pediatric Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (PaedsCTAS) as a measure of injury severity. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 13(7), 659.  DOI: 10.3390/ijerph13070659. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4962200.

Bell, N., Kruse, S., Simons, R. K., & Brussoni, M. (2014). A spatial analysis of functional outcomes and quality of life outcomes after pediatric injury. Injury Epidemiology, 1(16). DOI: 10.1186/s40621-014-0016-1 http://www.injepijournal.com/content/1/1/16.

Kruse, S., Schneeberg, A., & Brussoni, M. (2014). Validity and reliability of the PedsQLTM among a pediatric injury population. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 12, 168. DOI: 10.1186/s12955-014-0168-2. http://www.hqlo.com/content/12/1/168.

Brussoni, M., Kruse, S., & Walker, K. (2013). Validity and reliability of the EQ-5D-3L among a paediatric injury population. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 11, 157. DOI: 10.1186/1477-7525-11-157 http://www.hqlo.com/content/11/1/157.