Risk Factors for Upper Extremity Refractures in Children.

BACKGROUND: Multiple descriptive studies have been published on refracture patterns, particularly for forearm fractures. However, few large cohorts have been analyzed quantitatively including the odds of refracture, and with a comprehensive assessment of the possible predictive factors associated with refracture. This study aimed to assess the frequency and timing of upper extremity refracture in a large pediatric orthopaedics practice, and to evaluate the strength of association of various patient-level and fracture-related factors with refracture. METHODS: Medical records were reviewed retrospectively for patients 1 to 18 years of age with at least 1 upper extremity fracture (ICD-9 codes 810 to 819) between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2011. Characteristics of patients and fractures were assessed for the association with refracture using bivariate analysis and multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: Among 2793 patients with a total of 2902 upper extremity fractures, 2% were treated for refracture within 2 years, at a median of 6 months (188 d) after the initial injury. Midshaft location, and characterization of the fracture as angulated or buckle, were associated with being more likely to refracture. Eighty percent of refractures were the result of a fall, with almost 25% involving a high-energy mechanism and about 15% from monkey bars or other playground equipment. The adjusted odds of refracture were 4 times higher if noncompliance with treatment recommendations was documented, when controlling for insurance type and number of days before orthopaedic evaluation. Forearm fractures were almost 4 times more likely to refracture compared with other bones, controlling for midshaft location, days immobilized, and buckle or torus characterization of the fracture. CONCLUSIONS: Our practice saw a refracture occurrence in 2% of patients, with median time to refracture of ~6 months. The factors most strongly associated with refracture were midshaft fracture location, forearm fracture as opposed to clavicle or humerus, and noncompliance as defined in the study. Falls and high energy activities, such as use of wheeled devices, skis, or trampolines, were important mechanisms of refracture. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: This study is a Level II prognostic study. It is a retrospective study that evaluates the effect of patient and fracture characteristics on the outcome of upper extremity refracture.

Predictors of Childhood Injury in Children Reported to Child Protective Services.

BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences, such as child maltreatment, have been shown to result in negative health outcomes throughout an individual's life. Previous research has found that children with a prior allegation of maltreatment die due to unintentional injuries at twice the rate of children who were not reported to Child Protective Services, however, death is only one outcome of injury and many unintentional injuries do not result in death. METHODS: This secondary analysis of Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) data examined predictors of injury in children whose family has been reported to CPS utilizing the ecological-developmental framework theoretical domains which guided LONGSCAN: child characteristics, family/caregiver characteristics, parental and family functioning, extrafamilial relationship skills, community ecology, child outcomes, and systems of care factors. RESULTS: Logistic regression modeling showed that the likelihood of childhood injury significantly increased for those children who did not recognize or appropriately respond to cues of ending a conversation (OR=.37), caregiver reported child always has a good place to play in their neighborhood (OR=1.57), and child utilized educational services (OR=2.06). CONCLUSION: Understanding the predictors of injury is necessary to implement injury prevention interventions targeting the unique needs of this vulnerable population and increase awareness of prevention strategies to reduce childhood injuries.

Youth Suicide Attempt Nomenclature Used in Two Central Texas Hospitals.

BACKGROUND: Surveillance systems capturing instances of self-directed violence (SDV) continue to lack uniform nomenclature and classification methodology. AIMS: To apply and compare two retrospective surveillance approaches to youth experiencing SDV presenting to two urban hospitals with Level I Trauma Centers. METHOD: Two suicide attempt surveillance methods where retrospectively applied to our SDV cohort: (a) a rigorous method facilitated by medical record review and application of standardized classification; and (b) a common surveillance method conducted by systematic queries of suicide attempt key terms and diagnosis codes among hospital databases. RESULTS: Rigorous surveillance identified 249 patients attempting suicide. The common method's querying suicide attempt in the chief complaint field had a high positive predictive value and specificity; however, sensitivity was low. LIMITATIONS: Authors were unable to determine whether all SDV encounters during the study timeframe were identified for initial screening owing to the hospital's lack of a uniform nomenclature or classification system. CONCLUSION: Results showed underreporting of suicide attempt cases, inadequate sensitivity and specificity in common surveillance methods, and skewed demographic representation compared with the rigorous surveillance method. This study elucidates the negative impact of inconsistent SDV nomenclature including impeding effective patient identification, treatment, surveillance, and generalizable research.

Effectiveness of a Pediatric Abusive Head Trauma Prevention Program Among Spanish-Speaking Mothers.

INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to evaluate participants' knowledge of and intent to share key messages of the Period of PURPLE Crying abusive head trauma prevention program among a majority Spanish-speaking population. METHODS: This study was a retrospective review of a postintervention survey administered in the perinatal unit of a community birthing hospital. Surveys were administered to mothers of newborns by perinatal nurses as part of routine process evaluation prior to hospital discharge between May 30, 2014, and May 15, 2015. RESULTS: A majority of participants (86.4%) answered all six knowledge questions correctly. Among participants who reported that the father or significant other was not present during the PURPLE education (44.1%), all (100%) reported intending to share the PURPLE information with their partners. The majority of participants (88.1%) intended to share the information with others who take care of their infants. CONCLUSION: The PURPLE abusive head trauma prevention program demonstrated positive preliminary results in knowledge and intended behavior among a population of majority Spanish-speaking participants. These findings offer an important first step toward provision of effective universal abusive head trauma prevention among growing Spanish-speaking populations. Further evaluation is needed of acceptability, retention of messages, and postintervention behavior change among Spanish-speaking participants and nurses.

Designing optimal mortality risk prediction scores that preserve clinical knowledge.

Many in-hospital mortality risk prediction scores dichotomize predictive variables to simplify the score calculation. However, hard thresholding in these additive stepwise scores of the form "add x points if variable v is above/below threshold t" may lead to critical failures. In this paper, we seek to develop risk prediction scores that preserve clinical knowledge embedded in features and structure of the existing additive stepwise scores while addressing limitations caused by variable dichotomization. To this end, we propose a novel score structure that relies on a transformation of predictive variables by means of nonlinear logistic functions facilitating smooth differentiation between critical and normal values of the variables. We develop an optimization framework for inferring parameters of the logistic functions for a given patient population via cyclic block coordinate descent. The parameters may readily be updated as the patient population and standards of care evolve. We tested the proposed methodology on two populations: (1) brain trauma patients admitted to the intensive care unit of the Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas between 2007 and 2012, and (2) adult ICU patient data from the MIMIC II database. The results are compared with those obtained by the widely used PRISM III and SOFA scores. The prediction power of a score is evaluated using area under ROC curve, Youden's index, and precision-recall balance in a cross-validation study. The results demonstrate that the new framework enables significant performance improvements over PRISM III and SOFA in terms of all three criteria.

Perceptions of injury prevention and familial adjustment among mothers of teen parents.

INTRODUCTION: Injury is a leading cause of death for infants and children. Teen mothering has been shown to put children at increased risk of injury. The mothers of teen parents often play a predominant role in the lives and caregiving of the children born to their children. METHOD: This article presents the findings of three focus groups conducted with 21 mothers of teen parents. Grounded theory methodology was used to explore family dynamics and how they relate to injury prevention beliefs and practices regarding infants and children. RESULTS: Our findings revealed the difficulty mothers of teen parents and the teens themselves have in adjusting to the knowledge of the pregnancy. Unique barriers to injury prevention were also uncovered. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide evidence for the need of a multigenerational approach to programs aimed at improving the safety and well-being of children in this context.

Evaluating infant core temperature response in a hot car using a heat balance model.

PURPOSE: Using a 1-year old male infant as the model subject, the objectives of this study were to measure increased body temperature of an infant inside an enclosed vehicle during the work day (8:00 am-4:00 pm) during four seasons and model the time to un-compensable heating, heat stroke [>40 °C (>104 °F)], and critical thermal maximum [>42 °C (>107.6 °F)]. METHODS: A human heat balance model was used to simulate a child's physiological response to extreme heat exposure within an enclosed vehicle. Environmental variables were obtained from the nearest National Weather Service automated surface observing weather station and from an observational vehicular temperature study conducted in Austin, Texas in 2012. RESULTS: In all four seasons, despite differences in starting temperature and solar radiation, the model infant reached heat stroke and demise before 2:00 pm. Time to heat stroke and demise occurred most rapidly in summer, at intermediate durations in fall and spring, and most slowly in the winter. In August, the model infant reached un-compensable heat within 20 min, heat stroke within 105 min, and demise within 125 min. The average rate of heating from un-compensable heat to heat stroke was 1.7 °C/h (3.0 °F/h) and from heat stroke to demise was 4.8 °C/h (8.5 °F/h). CONCLUSIONS: Infants left in vehicles during the workday can reach hazardous thermal thresholds quickly even with mild environmental temperatures. These results provide a seasonal analogue of infant heat stroke time course. Further effort is required to create a universally available forensic tool to predict vehicular hyperthermia time course to demise.

Teaching safety at a summer camp: evaluation of a fire safety curriculum in an urban community setting.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of the Danger Rangers Fire Safety Curriculum in increasing the fire safety knowledge of low-income, minority children in an urban community setting. METHODS: Data was collected from child participants via teacher/researcher administered pre-, post-, and retention tests. A self-administered questionnaire was collected from parents pre- and post-intervention to assess fire/burn prevention practices. Paired t-tests were conducted to compare pre-, post-, and retention test mean scores by grade group. McNemar's test was used to determine if there was a change in parent-reported prevention practices following the intervention. RESULTS: The first/second grade group and the third grade group scored significantly higher on the post- and retention test as compared to the pre-test (p<0.0001 for all comparisons). There was no significant change in scores for the pre-k/k group after the intervention. There was a significant increase in 2 of 4 parent-reported fire/burn-related prevention practices after the intervention. CONCLUSION: Fire safety knowledge improved among first to third grade children, but not among pre-kinder and kindergarten children who participated in the intervention. This study also showed that a program targeted towards children and delivered in a classroom setting has the potential to influence familial prevention practices by proxy.

Threat of paediatric hyperthermia in an enclosed vehicle: a year-round study.

OBJECTIVE: To describe temperature change throughout the workday in an enclosed vehicle in Austin, Texas across the calendar year while accounting for heat index. METHODS: In this observational study, vehicular temperature was measured 1 day per month during 2012 in Austin, Texas. Data were recorded at 5-min intervals via an EL-USB-1-PRO digital temperature sensor from 8:00 to 16:00. Selected days were primarily cloud-free (with 'clear' or 'few clouds') with a predicted ambient temperature high within ±20°F of the 30-year normal high. Referent temperature and 30-year normal data were collected via the nearest National Weather Service (NWS) weather station. The NWS heat index and corresponding hazard levels were used as a guideline for this study. RESULTS: Per NWS guidelines, the enclosed vehicle temperature rose to 'danger' levels of ≥105°F (41°C) in all months except January and December and to 'extreme caution' levels of ≥90°F (32°C) in every month of the year. In June, the vehicle rose to ≥105°F (41°C) by 9:25. The hottest vehicular temperature achieved was 137°F (58°C). In 9 months of the year, the vehicle reached ≥90°F (32°C) by noon. We also found that an ambient temperature as low as 68°F was associated with vehicular temperatures ≥105°F (41°C). CONCLUSIONS: Infants and children in states that experience mild winter temperatures face the threat of vehicular hyperthermia disability and death across the calendar year. Prevention efforts that focus on awareness of a childhood heat vulnerability, parental perception of susceptibility to forgetting a child in a vehicle and universal availability of vehicular safety devices may reduce paediatric vehicular hyperthermia death.

Sleep behaviors of infants and young children: associated demographic and acculturation characteristics among Hispanic teen mothers.

Accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed is a leading cause of preventable infant death. Bed sharing, teen motherhood, and Hispanic ethnicity have been associated with infant sleep suffocation death. Fifty-five Hispanic teen mothers were surveyed regarding acculturation/demographic characteristics and their infants' sleep behaviors. Most participants had 2 foreign-born parents from Latin America. Participants with 2 US-born parents were less likely to bed share than their less-acculturated peers. Many participants reported not always placing their infant in a supine sleep position. There is a significant need to reach out to Hispanic teen mothers, particularly from newer immigrant families, with culturally and linguistically appropriate multigenerational clinical messaging on the risks of infant bed sharing and nonsupine sleep positioning.

Perceptions of injury and prevention practices among pregnant and parenting teenagers.

Injury is a leading cause of death for young children, and the children of teenaged parents may be at increased risk. This qualitative study explored pregnant and parenting teenagers' child safety beliefs and practices related to 4 topics: preventing accidental suffocation via safe sleeping practices, motor vehicle collision safety, prevention of inflicted head trauma, and drowning prevention. Twenty-four focus groups were held with 93 pregnant and/or parenting teenagers. Participants reported variation in their sleeping arrangements, transportation methods, caregivers, and childcare settings. Confusion over safety information was common. Child safety practices were influenced by boyfriends/husbands, parents, grandparents, and teachers.

The association between positive screen for future persistent posttraumatic stress symptoms and injury incident variables in the pediatric trauma care setting.

BACKGROUND: Posttraumatic stress (PTS) disorder after injury is a significant yet underaddressed issue in the trauma care setting. Parental anxiety may impact a child's risk of future, persistent PTS symptoms after injury. This study aimed to: (1) identify injury incident and demographic variables related to a positive screen for future, persistent PTS symptoms in children; and (2) examine the relationship between parental anxiety and a positive screen for future, persistent PTS symptoms in children. METHODS: From November 2009 to August 2010, 124 patients were enrolled at a pediatric trauma center. Inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) age 7 years to 17 years; (2) hospitalized for at least 24 hours after physical trauma; and (3) English or Spanish speaking. State and trait anxiety were measured for both pediatric patients and their parents/guardians via the state trait anxiety inventory for children and state trait anxiety inventory, respectively. Risk for future, persistent PTS, among pediatric patients was assessed via the screening tool for early predictor of posttraumatic stress disorder (STEPP). RESULTS: Of 116 participants assessed via the STEPP, 32 (28%) screened positive for risk of future, persistent PTS symptoms. Motor vehicle collision and parental presence at injury were associated with a positive STEPP screen. The effect of parental presence on positive STEPP screen was modified by parental trait anxiety. Children of anxious parents present at injury were over 14 times as likely to screen positive for risk of future, persistent PTS, as those without a parent present. CONCLUSION: The risk of future, persistent PTS, after injury among the pediatric population is substantial. Parents with existing trait anxiety are shown to influence their child's risk for future, persistent PTS, particularly if present at the injury event. Further study of PTS prevention and control strategies are needed among this population within the trauma care setting. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Epidemiological study, level II.

Teaching safety at a summer camp: evaluation of a water safety curriculum in an urban community setting.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this project was to evaluate a water safety curriculum in a low-income, minority-focused, urban youth summer camp. The curriculum is available to Safe Kids Coalitions across the country; however, it has not previously been evaluated. METHODS: Participants were pre-K to third-grade students (n = 166). Children watched a video and received the curriculum in a classroom setting. Each child was given a pre-, post-, and 3-week retention exam to assess knowledge change. Mean test scores and number of safety rules participants could list were analyzed using paired Student's t tests. Parents were given a baseline survey at the beginning (n = 140) and end of the weeklong curriculum (n = 118). RESULTS: The participants were 50% male, 27.5% Hispanic, 68.7% African American, and 3.8% biracial. Children were divided into three groups: pre-K/kindergarten, first and second grade, and third grade. Children in each of the groups received higher knowledge scores at the posttest (p = .0097, p < .0001, and p < .0001, respectively), with little decline in scores at the 3-week retention exam. Similar results were seen for the ability to list safety rules, though the number fell slightly between the posttest and retention test. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrates that children possessed more knowledge of water safety after receiving this curriculum. This knowledge increase was maintained through the 3-week retention exam. Further evaluation of the curriculum's content and its impact on water safety beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors are needed, as well as evaluation of additional settings, risk areas, and the role of parental involvement.

Under the influence with a child in the car: implications for child safety and caregiver intervention.

BACKGROUND: Injury is the leading cause of death for those aged 1 year to 44 years in the United States, with motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) the leading cause of injury-related deaths. Little data exist on the relationship between caregiver alcohol and drug use at the time of MVC and child passenger outcomes. We examined the relationship between caregiver substance use in MVCs and a number of demographic, crash severity, and medical outcomes for caregivers and children. METHODS: We identified family groups treated in the emergency department of a regional Level II trauma center after an MVC in a 1-year period from July 1, 2005, to June 30, 2006. The distribution and means of characteristics for substance and nonsubstance users were compared using χ analysis and Student's t tests, respectively. RESULTS: One in 10 vehicles contained an intoxicated caregiver at the time of MVC. In 363 identified caregivers, intoxication was associated with being male (p < 0.001), lack of safety device use (p = 0.003), rollover (p = 0.008), and ejection (p = 0.016). In the 278 family groups, intoxicated caregivers were related to child ejection (p = 0.009), the need for child hospital admission (p < 0.001), and driver intoxication was related to child lack of restraint (p = 0.045). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest a substantial number of child MVC victims arrive at the emergency room after riding with an intoxicated caregiver. Findings support the need for prevention programs focusing on substance use and driving for male caregivers, and further investigation on the need for screening and intervention for caregivers' risky alcohol and drug use after a child's MVC.