Children First Canada‘s report on child health in Canada is now available to the public. Highlights with respect to injury and fall statistics have been included below:
Accidents and preventable injuries are the leading cause of death for children in Canada.
The Canadian Pediatric Society reports that the three leading causes of injury-related deaths for children (age 0-19) are motor-vehicle collisions (17%), drowning (15%), and threats to breathing (11%).
The risk of death due to injury is far greater for First Nations children than non-Indigenous children (26% of deaths amongst First Nations’ children are injuries, compared to 6% of the non-Indigenous Canadian population).
Injuries also account for a high number of hospitalizations among children. In 2013-14, 17,500 hospitalizations of children and youth were for injuries; with approximately 700 of these for serious bike injuries.
A total of 3,000 of these hospitalizations were for injuries intentionally caused by others. Falls were the leading cause of hospitalization (37%).