Economic Cost of Childhood Unintentional Injuries

Aims: this study aims to review the economic cost of childhood(0-18 years) unintentional injuries (ui) and focuses upon comparingthe cost burden between developing and developed countries.methods: articles were selected from pubmed using the searchwords “economic cost”, “unintentional injuries” and “children”.nine articles were selected.results: studies in china focused upon cost to hospitals, inbangladesh they focused on personal payment in rural areas, andin vietnam they focused upon community-based cost analysis.there was one study from norway on ui at home. there were 5articles from the usa focusing on submersion injury, ui insurance,unintentional traumatic brain injury, ui due to firearms and uimedical costs. the cost of childhood ui is enormous, rangingfrom us $516,938 to us $9,550,704 per year. this represents alarge economic burden on society. additionally, there is a large gapbetween lower-middle income countries (lmic) and high incomecountries (hic) in the burden of injury, injury health care andinsurance systems.conclusion: different bases and contexts of studies make itdifficult to draw a solid conclusion about the amount of costsof ui among children. therefore, more studies of children’sunintentional injuries should be carried out in low and middleincome countries.