Prevalence of unintentional injury among left-behind children in mainland China: Evidence from epidemiological surveys

Jiang Juan; Ling Weijun; Huang Guifeng; Guo Xiaojing; Chen Zhaoxia; Su Li

doi:10.1111/cch.12835

Prevalence of unintentional injury among left-behind children in mainland China: Evidence from epidemiological surveys

Child Care Health Dev. 2021 May;47(3):387-399. doi: 10.1111/cch.12835. Epub 2021 Jan 28.

Authors

Jiang Juan¹, Ling Weijun², Huang Guifeng², Guo Xiaojing², Chen Zhaoxia², Su Li²

Affiliations

¹ Hainan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Institute for Prevention and Control of Tropical Diseases and Chronic Non-infectious Diseases, Haikou, Hainan, China.
² School of Public Health, Nanning, Guangxi, China.

PMID: 33274506
DOI: 10.1111/cch.12835

Abstract

Background: Left-behind children have become a particular concern in mainland China, and unintentional injury among these children has attracted increasing attention. This review aims to present the prevalence of unintentional injury among left-behind children and subgroups in mainland China.

Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted using four Chinese and two English databases. The included publications were cross-sectional studies in mainland China, of which the population was recruited according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Information was collected using self-administered questionnaires. The risk of bias was estimated using the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology, and pooled prevalence was estimated through the DerSimonian-Laird proportion method.

Results: This review included 34 cross-sectional studies consisting 58,348 left-behind children in mainland China. Results showed that the pooled prevalence of unintentional injury was 38.24% (95% confidence interval (CI): 28.40-48.08) among left-behind children. The prevalence was higher among left-behind children (38.76%) than among non-left-behind children (27.94%), with an odds ratio of 1.65 (95% CI: 1.47-1.85). Furthermore, the prevalence of injury was higher among boys (39.12%) than among girls (28.61%), with an odds ratio of 1.58 (95% CI: 1.41-1.77). Falls had the highest prevalence of 20.79% among the types of unintentional injury. Furthermore, home was the occurrence location with the highest prevalence (16.20%). No significant difference in injury prevalence was observed among left-behind children without accompanying parents and those with single parent accompanying them.

Conclusions: This review showed a relatively high injury prevalence among left-behind children in mainland China. Boys had a higher prevalence than girls. Falls had the highest prevalence, and home was the most common occurrence location.

Keywords: left-behind children; meta-analysis; prevalence; unintentional injury.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Child
China / epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Male
Prevalence*
Risk Factors
Surveys and Questionnaires