Injury surveillance in an accident and emergency department: a year in thelife of CHIRPP

Background-The design of childhood injury prevention programmes is hindered by a dearth of valid and reliable information on injury frequency, cause, and outcome. A number of local injury surveillance systems have been develo ped to address this issue. One example is CHIRPP (Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program), which has been imported into the accide nt and emergency department at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgo w. This paper examines a year of CHIRPP data. Methods-A CHIRPP questionnaire was completed for 7930 children presenting i n 1996 to the accident and emergency department with an injury or poisoning . The first part of the questionnaire was completed by the parent or accomp anying adult, the second part by the clinician. These data were computerise d and analysed using SPSSPC for Windows. Results-Injuries commonly occurred in the child's own home, particularly in children aged 0-4 years. These children commonly presented with bruising, ingestions, and foreign bodies. With increasing age, higher proportions of children presented with injuries occurring outside the home. These were mos t commonly fractures, sprains, strains, and inflammation/oedema. Seasonal v ariations were evident, with presentations peaking in the summer. Conclusions-There are several limitations to the current CHIRPP system in G lasgow: it is not population based, only injuries presented to the accident and emergency department are included, and injury severity is not recorded . Nevertheless, CHIRPP is a valuable source of information on patterns of c hildhood injury. It offers local professionals a comprehensive dataset that may be used to develop, implement, and evaluate child injury prevention ac tivities.