Introduction:
Home and Leisure Accidents (HLA) are one of the important public health issue, especially in childhood, with individual, societal and economic consequences. Falls have been identified as a leading cause of HLA, common cause of injury-related morbidity and mortality, especially among children. Evidence shows that most of HLA are associated with identifiable and modifiable risk factors. However, more detailed information about the context and characteristics of such events is needed.

Objective:
This study aimed to characterize the occurrence of HLA in children aged 0-14 year related to hospital Emergency Department (ED) of the National Health Service in Portugal based on hospital records, through EVITA system.

Methods:
A descriptive analysis of the data was performed to characterize falls attendance in ED according to sex (male and female), age groups (0-4, 5-9, 10-14), place of occurrence (outdoor spaces, home, school), product-related , season and week day attendance. Associations were studied with Pearson's chi-square or fisher exact test. Odds Ratio (OR) were also computed to measure the associations. A significance level of 5% was considered.

Results:
During the 2022 year children aged 0-14 years old represented 23% of the total of attendances in the emergency department. In the HLA context falls constitute the major injury mechanism in all age groups under 4 years old (65%), between 5-9 years old (61%) and between 10-14 years old (54%). The 2022 year registered 25 371 HLA due to falls in children aged 0-14 years old, at home (38%), school (52%) and in the outdoor spaces (10%). Regarding to the products most involved in the falls at home the “floor” was the leading category in age groups 5-9 years (38, 6%) and 10-14 years (46,8%). In the younger ones, under 4 years old furniture (48,3%) represented the main category. In floor surface involved falls the odds in the children between 5-9 years was about 1,2 the odds in the youngest (till 4 years old) and about 1,1 in females. For furniture related falls the odds at home was 21,7 (CI95% 9,7; 48,6) the odds in outdoor spaces. The higher age-groups seems to be protective considering the youngest ones (0,2 for 5-9 and 0,1 for 10-14).

Conclusion:
Considering that globally falls can be prevented, this information reinforces the importance of this problem and its magnitude.

Keywords: Home and Leisure Accidents, Children, Falls, Emergency department, EVITA system

Other info: Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge - Lisbon - Lisbon - Portugal