• E L Johnson, S Maguire, L I Hollén, D Nuttall, D Rea, and A M Kemp.
• Institute of Primary Care & Public Health, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Neuadd Meirionnydd, Heath Park, Cardiff, UK. Electronic address: johnsone3@cardiff.ac.uk.
• Burns. 2017 Sep 1; 43 (6): 1218-1226.

AimsTo inform childhood burn prevention by identifying demographics, clinical features and circumstances of unintentional non-scald burns.MethodsA prospective cross-sectional study was conducted across Cardiff, Bristol and Manchester, including six emergency departments, three minor injury units and one burns unit between 13/01/2013-01/10/2015. Data collected for children aged <16 years with any burn (scald, contact, flame, radiation, chemical, electrical, friction) included: demographics, circumstances of injury and clinical features. Scalds and burns due to maltreatment were excluded from current analysis.ResultsOf 564 non-scald cases, 60.8% were boys, 51.1% were <3 years old, 90.1% (472/524) of burns affected one anatomical site. Contact burns accounted for 86.7% (489/564), 34.8% (137/394) of which were from objects placed at >0.6m and 76.5% (349/456) affected the hands. Hairstyling devices were the most common agent of contact burns (20.5%, 100/487); 34.1% (30/88) of hairstyling devices were on the floor. Of children aged 10-15 years, 63.7% (65/102), sustained contact burns of which 23.2% (13/56) were preparing food, and when burnt from hairstyling devices, 73.3% (11/15) were using them at the time of injury.ConclusionsParents of toddlers must learn safe storage of hazardous items. Older children should be taught skills in safe cooking and hairstyling device use.Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved.

34 keywords...

hide…