Table 1.
The numbers of pediatric traumatic injury cases in the NHISS and single-institutional data, and national population statistical data by year.
Fig 1.
(A) Injured body part. In both the Korean National Health Insurance Sharing Service and single-institutional data, the most commonly injured body part was the head, followed by the upper extremities distal to the elbow (that is, the elbow to hand) and the lower extremities distal to the knee (that is, the knee to foot). Injuries of the trunk or proximal extremities such as the shoulders or hips were rare. (B) Injury type. Low-energy injuries such as open wounds or superficial injuries were most common in both datasets.
Table 2.
Comparisons between the single-institutional and NHISS data.
Fig 2.
(A) Korean National Health Insurance Sharing Service (NHISS) data for the injury incidence rate per 1 million claim cases according to year. The incidence rate tended to increase during the 10-year study period (β = 0.877, p = 0.001). The decrease in 2015 may be explained by the outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome, when there was an attempt to reduce emergency department visits to prevent the spread of the virus. (B) Single-institutional data for visiting patients by year. The number of injured patients tended to increase over the study period (β = 0.933, p < 0.001) with more rapid changes occurring after 2010, which coincides with the opening of a pediatric emergency center in December of that year. (C) When the numbers of cases of single-institutional data were weighted for age and body part using the NHISS data, there was a greater increase in the single-institutional data. (D) NHISS data for the standardized injury incidence rate per 1 million claim cases by year. Although there appeared to be a greater increase in the single-institutional data in Fig 2C, the rate of increase in the NHISS data became more rapid after standardization to the population composition in 2006 (β = 0.964, p < 0.001). Despite a decreased proportion of children aged 0–14 years, the injury incidence rate increased over time. Therefore, the rate of pediatric traumatic injuries may have increased more rapidly than assumed.
Fig 3.
(A) Place of injury by age. The home was the most common location where injury occurred in young children. As age increased, the injury rates outside the home also increased. (B) Monthly visit frequencies by age. The differences in the frequencies of emergency department visits by month became more apparent as age increased. For older children, the visit frequency peaked in May and June, which is a period suitable for outdoor activities. By contrast, the frequency of visits was lowest during winter. (C) Time of emergency department visits. The most common time when emergency departments were visited was between 7 and 10 pm.
Fig 4.
The proportions of indoor playground (A) and trampoline-related (B) injuries increased rapidly during the study period.
Table 3.
Single-institutional data regarding injured body parts by age.
Table 4.
Single-institutional data regarding injury type by age.
Table 5.
Single-institutional data regarding diagnostic codes by age.