Search

All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) are a leading cause of serious injury in children and youth. Certain Canadian regions have implemented legislation to promote safety, including age restrictions, mandatory training and helmet use. Jurisdictions with more stringent ATV safety legislation have been shown to have reduced injury rates in the short term.

The mandate of a formal child death review (CDR) system is to advance understanding of how and why children die, to improve child health and safety, and to prevent deaths and injuries in the future. Areas in which CDR has provided valuable information and/or intervention include sudden death in infancy, unintentional injuries (the leading cause of death in Canadian children and youth one to 19 years of age), suicide in youth, and deaths due to homicide or child maltreatment. When collected systematically using common definitions, information regarding deaths in children and youth can help with understanding the scope of problems. Information about the context of a death can inform potential prevention or intervention activities. CDR can improve medical and mental health best practices, child welfare policies and procedures, and legislation and education relevant to public health and safety. In the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, CDR processes are mandated by legislation. In Canada, death review teams have diverse structures and functions, and the CDR system is less well developed. The present statement addresses the need for formal, organized child and youth death review in Canada to help strengthen and systemize injury and death prevention efforts.

Skiing and snowboarding are popular recreational and competitive sport activities for children and youth. Injuries associated with both activities are frequent and can be serious. There is new evidence documenting the benefit of wearing helmets while skiing and snowboarding, as well as data refuting suggestions that helmet use may increase the risk of neck injury. There is also evidence to support using wrist guards while snowboarding. There is poor uptake of effective preventive measures such as protective equipment use and related policy. Physicians should have the information required to counsel children, youth and families regarding safer snow sport participation, including helmet use, wearing wrist guards for snowboarding, training and supervision, the importance of proper equipment fitting and binding adjustment, sun safety and avoiding substance use while on the slopes.

With concerns increasing around childhood obesity and inactivity, playgrounds offer a chance for children to be active. But playgrounds also have risks, with injuries from falls being the most common. Research has shown that playground injuries can be reduced by lowering the heights of play equipment and using soft, deep surfaces to cushion falls. The Canadian Standards Association has published voluntary standards for playgrounds to address these risks for several years. Parents can further reduce injury risks by following simple playground strategies. This statement outlines the burden of playground injuries. It also provides parents and health care providers with opportunities to reduce injury incidence and severity through education and advocacy, and to implement evidence-informed safety standards and safer play strategies in local playgrounds. This document replaces a previous Canadian Paediatric Society position statement published in 2002.

The majority of child and youth injuries are preventable. This statement provides background, direction and a statement of commitment to the issue of child and youth injury prevention in Canada. It acts as a foundation to build upon by focusing first on definitions, scope and priorities for injury prevention. It also describes the burden and patterns of unintentional injury, and the principles of effective intervention for prevention. A list of resources for obtaining data and evidence-based information is included in the full-text version of this statement (www.cps.ca). This statement can also be used for broad-based injury prevention advocacy.