The importance of language makes politicians, economic entities or even international health organizations consider the convenience of using one or another term on certain occasions. For example, we ask ourselves, What is the difference between accident or injury? We might think that both terms can be used interchangeably, in fact they are often used as synonyms. But there is an important nuance, especially if we talk about accidents or childhood injuries.
In its recommendations, the World Health Organization proposes to replace the word "accident" with that of "unintentional injury" in order to modify the conception that an accident is an inevitable event and cannot be influenced, which is due to chance, unlike the word "injury", which leads us to think about a fact on which it is possible to act.
Hence the name of a recent document for parents that claims help us in the prevention of accidents or injuries and of which we have spoken to you: the Guide for Parents on the prevention of unintentional injuries in children.
Data on child accidents in the world
But, beyond the name we give it, What data are important about those accidents or injuries that affect children? Why do you focus the attention of child health specialists?
Every day there are more than two thousand deaths of children due to unintentional injuries in the world.
In addition to the 830,000 deaths annually, millions of children suffer non-fatal injuries that often need prolonged hospitalization and rehabilitation.
Unintentional injuries constitute the first cause of death in childhood between the ages of five and 18 in the European Union.
In Spain, the most frequent causes of traumatic injury are falls and precipitation (35.6%), followed by traffic accidents (23.7%), either due to abuse in children aged four to eight years or as occupants of Vehicles or motorcycles in teenagers.
Preschoolers are frequent victims of domestic accidents, falls, precipitation from height, drowning, burns and poisoning.
Unintentional injuries are also the main cause of pain, suffering and disability that, throughout life, can have serious consequences on the physical, psychological and social development of the injured child.
Injuries also determine an important flow of health and social resources in the short and long term.
If preventive measures of proven effectiveness were adopted it could save the lives of at least 1000 children a day in the world.
The latter is perhaps the most important and what we referred to in the title of this article: unintentional injuries can be prevented, at least in good part, so we should not leave the responsibility to chance but take into account what we can Do us as a parent or caregiver to protect children.
In short, despite the nuance between the terms "accident" and "injury", we must be aware that both child accidents and unintentional injuries in children, no matter how much we give them one name or another, can be prevented and you have to take the necessary security measures. Because we don't want unnecessary scares!
Photos | iStock
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