Body habitus as a predictor of burn risk in children: do fat boys still get burned?

Previous research at this institute has demonstrated that heavy-for-age boy s are more burn prone than their normal sized counterparts. As this study i s now 26 years old, we reexamined the anthropomorphic indices of 372 childr en admitted to one burn center between January 1991 and July 1997 to determ ine if this trend was still evident. Male children were over-represented in the less than or equal to 5th and >95th percentiles for both height (p < 0 .001, p < 0.05) and weight (p < 0.01, p < 0.001). Female children were over -represented in the less than or equal to 5th and >95th percentiles for hei ght (p < 0.01, p < 0.05). Twenty-eight percent of boys at or below the 5th percentile for weight were burned as a result of known or suspected intenti onal injury, compared to 5.9% of the entire pediatric burn population (p < 0.0004). 'Fat boys' continue to be over-represented in the pediatric burn p opulation. Additionally, in the more recent time period, boys at or below t he 5th percentile for height or weight and girls= <5th percentile or >95th percentile for height are also over-represented. The increased frequency of burn injury in small-for-age children may reflect an increased risk of bur n injury secondary to neglect or nonaccidental trauma. Published by Elsevie r Science Ltd for ISBI.