The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
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Information about accidental injury among children under five years old was obtained prospectively by studying children registered with one general practice (total list size 9425) who presented at the surgery and/or the accident and emergency department at the North Staffordshire Hospital Centre during a 12 month period. Details were obtained from answers to a questionnaire sent to parents within two weeks of a child's accident. Of 511 children under five years of age, 100 children (57 boys, 43 girls) had 120 accidents. ⋯ Socioeconomic factors were not significantly different between the cases and the controls. Similar numbers of families in the study and control groups had items of safety equipment and had good awareness and knowledge of accident prevention. The results of this study cast doubt on the value of safety equipment and knowledge alone in child accident prevention.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)