Economic burden of injuries in children: Cohort study based on administrative data in a northwestern Italian region

Background The aim of the study was identifying which types of injuries are responsible for a major component of the health burden and estimating the relative costs in an Italian children cohort. Methods All children (0-14 years) residing in Piedmont region, who were hospitalized for an injury (ICD-9-CM codes 800-995, excluding late effects from injury and allergies) between January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2003, were considered. The cohort was linked by a unique identifier to: all the hospitalizations, all the day-hospital performances, all the prescribed medicines. The outcome was defined as the difference in health service use in the 12 months following the injury and it was compared to the year preceding the injury occurrence. Individual's total number of hospital admissions, cumulative length of stay, day-hospital performances, and prescribed medicines were calculated for the two periods. The cost of additional inpatient days and of additional outpatient performances was calculated. Results The three most common injury categories are: Intracranial injury (27.6%), fracture of upper limb (18.7%) and lower limb (9.07%); they are responsible for the major part of the additional inpatient days (55%) and outpatient performances (70%). The additional expense for the NHS during the year following an injury is approximately 1,700€ for children aged 0-14. Conclusions This is the first Italian study attempting to quantify the injury economic burden in a cohort of children: the costs impost on society by injuries, suggest how important it is to invest resources in injury prevention. Language: en