Home-related injuries among children under 12: parents’ knowledge, attitude and practice in the Republic of Moldova

Introduction:
Injuries continue to be one of the global public health problems, an important cause of morbidity and mortality in children, even in countries with the most advanced medical services. According to WHO, around 424 000 children of all ages die worldwide each year from falls and more than 2000 children suffer from unintentionally injuries every day. More than 95% of these deaths happen in low- and middle-income nations, where the majority happened within home environment. Our objectives were to assess the parents’ knowledge, attitude and practice regarding home related injuries among children under 12 and intervene with prevention methods.

Methods:
A cross-sectional study was conducted using a questionnaire to assess home-related injuries knowledge, attitude and practices among parents, grandparents or other people taking care for children under 12 years old, after providing their consent. From May to December 2022, the questionnaire was accessible online and circulated via social media, following data was collected: demographic’s, level of supervision, falls, poisoning, burns and home-related injury. Ethics committee approval has been obtained.

Results:
In total, participated 481 parents with children up to 12 years old, mostly aged between 26-35 years (627%), with high education (78.3%), of them 94.8% females, majority from urban areas (80%). Almost 68.3% respondents believe their child could get hurt at home, namely through injury (86.9%), followed by 37.1% who believe their child could consume something foreign. In 46,3% of cases, it is difficult for youngsters to get sharp objects, drugs, and harmful solutions, in 12.6%- it is simple. Falls accounted for 76% of the child's injuries over the past year. Parents claim to always be able to see and hear their children, according to 48.3% of parents, although there are times when they do leave their kids alone for a while. However, they occasionally leave them in the care of grandparents (58.3%) or other people (23.7%). When a child was injured at home, 46.7% of parents treated their child at home, while 36.9% went to the doctor, of them 34.1% were examined and discharged without treatment. Following the accident, 74.8% of people rated the child's condition as good, and 27.5% as acceptable.

Conclusions:
The findings of this study will enable us to focus more on the child safety within home environment, identify relevant measures to prevent them and improve trauma medical care Keywords. children, home injury, 0-12 years old, safety, prevention.

A hospital-based trauma registry in the Republic of Moldova - Findings from a 1-Year Study

Introduction:
In the last 14 years, traumatic injuries were the fourth leading cause of death in the Republic of Moldova. Despite being a national priority, few local resources are available for collecting injury data. Trauma registries are extremely importnant to public health professionals, clinical practitioners, and researchers because they allow for defining the burden of injury by identifying the patient’s demographic, mechanism, risk factors, outcomes, and trends, as well as allowing for data comparison with neighboring countries.
Our objectives were to identify the major causes of hospital-treated injuries by piloting a trauma registry, for one year, in three different countries as part of the iCREATE Project, Republic of Moldova being one of them.

Methods:
The iCREATE Injury Registry, funded through the US National Institutes of Health, was piloted in 2018 within two Emergency Departments in Chisinau. Data colection tool was developed based on the WHO Recommendations, ICD-10, IDB-JAMIE Project, and Iowa Emergency Unit Registry. All patients with a diagnosis of injury were included. Redcap electronic tool was used to upload basic demographics, injury details, event detail, injury severity, outcome, and five additional modules using patients’ medical records. Ethics committee approval was obtained. Results. There were 7866 patient records included in the registry. The mean age of patients was 42,6 years (Std. 21.14), 57,2% males and 41,6% females. Urban areas accounted for 76.9% of injuries, with the majority being unintentional (90,5%). Falls (67,1%), cut/pierce (10,7%) and road traffic injuries (4,7%) were the most common mechanisms of injury. Seniors (60+) were the leading group in relation to falls, while people aged 18-29 were mostly injured in road traffic crashes. Home (55,7%) and streets/highways (26,5%) were the most common places of injury occurrence. Head (12,4%) followed by the ankle (11,8%), were the most frequently injured body parts, with fracture (32,4%) and contusion/bruise (23,1%) being the main types of injury. More than one-third (37,4%, N=2914) of all patients needed further treatment and were admitted to the hospitals, while 61,4% received treatment in the emergency room and released home. Many variables, including injury occurrence, employment, intent, injury mechanism, Injury Severity Score, alcohol and drug screen, could not be obtained from the patient's medical records or could only partly be obtained.

Conclusions:
These data indicate that injuries are a health priority for all sociodemographic populations and geographical areas. Data such as these can help direct prevention and treatment efforts.

Keywords: Trauma registry, injury prevention, Emergency Department

Svetlana Cociu1, Angela Cazacu-Stratu1, Serghei Cebanu1, Patricia Marga2, Diana Dulf2 , Corinne Peek-Asa3 1 Department of Preventive Medicine, Nicolae Testemitanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova 2 Department of Public Health, College of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj- Napoca, Romania 3 Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, San Diego, USA