Hospitalizations

Definition:

The rate of nonfatal-injury hospitalizations to children ages 0-18 years, 19-21 years, and 0-21 years per 100,000 age-specific population for selected categories of injury (unintentional, assault, self-inflicted).*

Data Source: Data compiled by Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Story Behind the Data:

Childhood injuries requiring inpatient hospitalization present risks of long-term illness and disability.  Injuries may be the result of unintentional or intentional events.  Most unintentional injuries are related to motor vehicles, falls, fires and burns, poisonings, choking and suffocation, and drowning.** Intentional injuries include assaults and self-inflicted injuries.

In 2013, there were 2,948 total inpatient hospital discharges for unintentional injury; 602 discharges for injuries due to assault; and 730 discharges for self-inflicted injuries among Maryland children ages 0-21.  Non-Hispanic Black children had the highest rate of assault-injury hospitalizations at 58.5 per 100,000, which was more than five times higher than the rate among both non-Hispanic Whites and Hispanic children.

Assault and unintentional injuries decreased across the board, however, from 2008 through 2013.  The rate of hospitalizations due to assault decreased by 48% in that time and the rate due to unintentional injuries fell 33.5%.

In 2011, motor vehicle accidents were the second-leading cause of injury-related hospitalizations for children ages 5-14 and the number one cause for those in the 15-24 age bracket.  In order to reduce this rate, the Statewide program, Kids in Safe Seats (KISS), provides free inspection of car seat installations and free car seats to those in need.  KISS released a public service ad in 2014 to educate the public about the importance of ensuring that children are properly secured in a motor vehicle.  This program, along with other injury-prevention programs, is administered by the Environmental Health Bureau at DHMH.

Additional Information

• Jurisdictional Data

Footnotes

*These data refer to encounters with the healthcare system, not to individuals or to incidents.  Recurring visits, either for the same injury or for subsequent injuries, were counted separately.  Out-of-State hospitalizations for Maryland residents are not included in these data.
**The unintentional injury category excludes those injuries due to medical procedure and therapeutic drug adverse events.