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Stroller-, carrier-related injuries decrease, but require attention
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Although they have declined, stroller- and carrier-related injuries in young children, particularly events when a child fell or the vehicle tipped, should encourage safer design and better injury prevention, according to study findings.
“From 1990 through 2010, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued 43 stroller-related recalls and 13 infant carrier-related recalls for injury risks that included falls, entrapment, strangulation or choking hazards, amputations and lacerations, clear evidence that strollers and carriers pose a significant risk for injury,” Christopher Kobe, MD, from the Center for Injury Research and Policy, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and colleagues wrote. “In 2010, stroller- and carrier-related injuries were two of the three most common ‘nursery’ product-related injuries in children younger than 5 years of age treated in U.S. EDs, with infant carriers/car seat carriers as the most common followed by cribs/mattresses and strollers/carriages.”
Kobe and colleagues performed a retrospective analysis with data pooled from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System for children aged 5 years and younger (n = 360, 937) who were treated in EDs for injuries associated with strollers or carriers from 1990 to 2010. Most children were injured during a fall from a stroller (67%) or carrier (63%) or when the stroller (16%) or carrier (29%) tipped forward. Head injuries accounted for the majority of injuries in both products (stroller, 43%; carrier, 61.5%), followed by facial injuries (stroller, 31%; carrier, 24.7%).
Soft tissue injuries were frequently diagnosed in stroller (39.4%) and carrier (48.1%) incidents, while 24.6% of stroller-related injuries and 34.9% of carrier-related injuries included traumatic brain injury or concussion. The majority of injuries overall involved children aged younger than 1 year (54.9%), and 6.5% of carrier-related injuries involved hospitalizations compared with 2.4% of stroller events.
Incidence rates for both products decreased during the study period (stroller, 5.3 per 10,000 children in 1990 vs. 4.8 per 10,000 in 2010, P < .001; carriers, 3 per 10,000 children to 1 per 10,000, P = .007). Nonetheless, the persistence of injuries suggested that current strategies for injury prevention should be improved and implemented, the researchers wrote.
“Despite industry safety monitoring of strollers and carriers … patterns of injury associated with strollers and carriers are similar to those identified more than a decade ago,” the researchers wrote. “The considerable number of injuries annually shows the need to further reduce the potential for injury associated with these ubiquitous products.” – by Kate Sherrer
Disclosure: Kobe reports receiving a financial stipend from The Ohio State University College of Medicine Bennett Scholarship during the study.
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