Developing a core list of action-oriented indicators for child unintentional injury prevention

Background

Injuries are a leading cause of death in children and adolescents in the 5-19 age group. Despite this they have received comparatively less public and policy attention in previous decades due to a focus on infectious diseases. Indicators are an important tool for advocacy, monitoring, policy planning and public awareness. Indicators related to injury are few and focus mostly on road safety, making it challenging for policymakers to direct their efforts and compare progress across countries.

Aim

We aimed to develop a more representative, detailed, and useful suite of policy-relevant indicators for childhood unintentional injuries to support and evaluate injury prevention initiatives for UNICEF, across their country offices worldwide that better represent the child and adolescent unintentional injury burden.

Research Methodology

The George Institute for Global Health used a five-step process to find and select the best ways to measure childhood injury risks. First, we did a thorough search of both published and unpublished reports. Then, we picked out measures based on specific criteria. Next, we asked a group of experts from around the world to agree on which measures were best, aiming for at least 60% agreement among them. After that, we organized these measures into different levels for easier use. Finally, we detailed the essential information for each measure. Our focus was on the top five causes of child and adolescent injuries. We chose the final measures based on factors like how accurate, reliable, sensitive, available, easy to use, and widely applicable they were.