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Minority children have often been reported to be at high risk of injury. The higher levels of reported unintentional injuries among Arab children compared to Jewish children in Israel are mainly due to pedestrian traffic crashes, falls and burns. Arab children aged 1–4 years have a higher relative risk of injury compared to Jews. We suggest a socio-ecological model to explain these differences in risk based on individual, interpersonal, community and societal ecological levels of society. Each level is divided into social and physical environments and behaviour. Two main factors may contribute to the high rates of injury among Arab children: the quality of the physical environment in which the children live and play and the levels of child supervision. Socio-economic status may contribute to these differences at all ecological levels of society. This approach could be useful for researchers and practitioners to analyse similar issues in other communities and help develop appropriate interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective: To quantify the validity and reliability of responses to a self-report home safety survey designed for use in a community-based child injury prevention program. Methods: A cross-sectional study of home-based injury risk factors and safety practices was administered to a random sample of households (n = 614) in two rural and remote communities in Queensland, Australia using a Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) survey. The survey was re-administered during subsequent home interviews with a sub-sample (n = 85) of CATI participants. Results: For all self-reported hazards and safety practices, prevalence estimates obtained from the CATI survey were significantly different from those directly observed at the home interview with proportions of homes exposed to hazards between 10-21% under reported at CATI survey and safety practices over-reported at CATI survey by 17-24%. There was no statistically significant difference however between the estimates of prevalence of hazards and safety practices self-reported at CATI and home interview. Validity of the CATI survey was poor with sensitivity of the CATI question ranging from 0 to 71 and specificity from 32 to 97. While the marginal distribution of prevalences of hazard prevalences and safety practices were similar between CATI and home interviews, the low level of response concordance (κ = -0.24 to 0.41) indicates that reliability of the responses to these questions was low. Conclusion: In view of these limitations in the accuracy of CATI risk factor surveys, their use for priority setting and evaluation in community-based injury prevention programs needs to be considered with caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Great variations occur in injury mortality and morbidity, which reflect the individual's age, gender, social and economic group, cultural and ethnic group and the place in which they live. This paper concentrates on social and economic factors and their relationship with injuries in higher income countries. Particular attention is paid to childhood injuries. The paper addresses the question of how it is possible to bridge the gap related to disadvantage and injury, through the examination of descriptive, explanatory and intervention studies and policy initiatives. Progress on addressing the gap is still in its early stages, with many research gaps related to explanatory and intervention studies and few examples of policy initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]