Hospitalizations due to falls in Jewish and Arab children in northern Israel

In Israel, there are no epidemiological data regarding nonfatal childhood f alls. A retrospective survey was conducted in order to find epidemiological characteristics of childhood falls among the different populations of nort hern Israel. During the years 1993 through 1995, 3082 children were hospita lized in Rambam Medical Center (RMC) due to injury. The children were subdi vided into the four main populations: Jewish and Arab residents of Haifa re gion (the main metropolitan area) and Jewish and Arab residents of the Gali lee region (the rural region). All of the children who suffered injury that required mechanical ventilation and careful assessment were admitted to th e PICU. The charts of the children admitted to the PICU were then further s tudied. The demographic characteristics of all the cases of falls were stat istically analyzed and the annual admission rates due to falls were calcula ted using the national statistical registrations of children in Israel. Fal ls were responsible for 1049 admissions due to injury, one third of the tot al number of children who were admitted due to an injury. Most of the child ren were five years of age or younger. Two thirds of the total childhood fa lls were of Arabs. The majority of the admissions were of two major sub-pop ulations of northern Israel: Arab residents of Galilee region (66%) and Jew ish residents of Haifa region (34%). Higher admission rate was found among Arab children of the Western Galilee district in comparison with Jewish chi ldren of the Haifa district. Most of the children who were admitted to the PICU were Arabs: nearly all of these children were from the rural region. M ore Arab than Jewish children who fell were admitted to the PICU and the ma jority of these cases were falls from buildings (private houses). Arab chil dren of the rural region were responsible for 95% of the cases. These falls were mainly in staircases (46%) and from balconies (21%), roofs (11%) and windows (11%). The findings of the present study suggest that young Arab ru ral children in northern Israel are at high risk to a severe injury due to fall. Possible causes are discussed and a preventative intervention is sugg ested.