Objective: To assess the incidence of fall injuries among infants in
Greece, overall and by type of nursery equipment.
Design: Review of data from a large injury database.
Setting: The Emergency Department Injury Surveillance System in Greece.
Patients: A total of 2672 injured infants.
Interventions: Specially trained health visitors performed in-person
interviews with the children’s guardians, using a preceded
questionnaire. The results of an independent survey of 777 mothers of
noninjured children younger than 2 years attending the same emergency
departments were used to allow quantification of the role of specific
nursery equipment in the causation of infant fall injuries.
Main Outcome Measures: Annual rate of injury by falling in infants,
overall and by cause.
Results: About 4400 infant fall injuries occur annually in Greece,
corresponding to an annual incidence rate of 44 injuries per 1000
infants. The incidence of falls increases with increasing infant age. A
high percentage of severe injuries was detected, most of them
concussions (14.3%) and fractures (9.4%). Approximately 10% of
infants with fall-related injuries required hospitalization. More than
36% of fall injuries involved nursery equipment. Infant walker use was
associated with a higher incidence of falls (about 9 per 1000
infant-years), and these falls occasionally involved stairs and caused
serious injuries. Infant bouncers, strollers, and changing tables were
all associated with a similar incidence of falls (about 4 per 1000
infant-years).
Conclusions: Falls are a common cause of serious infant injuries, and
nursery equipment is frequently involved in the injury-causing event
