Fatal childhood injuries in Finland between 1971 and 2017

BACKGROUND: The injury mortality rates around the globe show considerable country-to-country differences and the rates have decreased at very different speeds. In Finland, the proportion of total mortality attributed to injuries has been one of the highest in the European Union. The purpose of the present study was to examine the 47-year nationwide trend and the male to female ratio in the number and incidence of fatal injuries among 0 to 14-year-old children in Finland. METHODS: The data were obtained from the Official Cause-of-Death Statistics of Finland during 1971–2017. The main categories for unintentional injury deaths were road traffic injuries, water traffic injuries, falls, drownings, and poisonings. For intentional injury deaths, the main categories were suicides and homicides. RESULTS: In 1971, there were 109 fatal injuries in girls and 207 in boys, while in 2017, these numbers had reduced to 9 and 12. The corresponding incidences (per 100,000 children per year) were 20.1 and 2.1 for girls, and 36.7 and 2.6 for boys, respectively. During the study period overall male to female injury incidence ratio decreased from 1.8 to 1.2. The greatest decline occurred in the number of fatal motor vehicle injuries. In 1971, the incidence of intentional deaths (suicides and homicides) was 2.6 in girls and 2.7 in boys, while in 2017 these numbers were 0.9 and 0.4, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This nationwide study confirms that the number and incidence rates of childhood injury deaths have reduced till current days and are already below the average in Europe.