Antenatal and early childhood exposures associated with non-fatal infant injury: Evidence from a longitudinal birth cohort in New Zealand

Abstract

Objective To identify antenatal and early childhood exposures of unintentional injury among infants in New Zealand (NZ). Method The theoretical life-course framework of child injury prevention domains was utilised to analyse data from a prospective longitudinal NZ birth cohort (Growing Up in NZ). Risk and protective factors for injury were identified using Robust Poisson regression models. Result Among children included for the analysis(n=6304), 52% were male, 55% were born to European mothers, and 37% lived in a household with high levels of deprivation. Mothers reported that 6% of infants (n=406) had sustained at least one injury by 9 months. Multivariate analysis showed injury risk among single mothers with antenatal depression were more than twice that (IRR=2.20) of children of mothers with partners and without depression. Conclusion Understanding antenatal risk and protective factors for infant injury will assist in implementing injury prevention programmes or modifying the existing policies that affect these vulnerable age groups.