National survey of home injuries during the time of COVID-19: who is at risk?
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National survey of home injuries during the time of COVID-19: who is at risk? Andrea C. Gielen1* , Grace Bachman2, Oluwakemi Badaki-Makun3, Renee M. Johnson4, Eileen McDonald1, Elise Omaki5, Keshia M. Pollack Porter5, Leticia Ryan3 and Wendy Shields5
Abstract Background: Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 44% of all reported injuries in U.S. households occurred in the home. Spending more time at home due to the pandemic may increase the number of home injuries. Methods: A nationally representative sample of 2011 U.S. adults were surveyed online between June 17 – June 29, 2020. Propensity score weighting and T-tests were used. Results: Twenty-eight percent (28%) of households reported a home injury or ingestion during the pandemic; 13% reported experiencing both. Injuries were most often due to falls (32%). Medication ingestions were reported by 6%; household product ingestions were reported by 4%. Relative to households that experienced no injuries or ingestions, those that reported either or both were more likely to: be in urban areas, have household incomes > $100,000, and have children living in them. Among households reporting more time spent at home, those with children were significantly more likely than those without to report an injury or ingestion. Conclusions: Results help target prevention messages while U.S. families are continuing to work and learn remotely. During this pandemic and future stay-at-home orders, there is a need for public health efforts to prevent home injuries and ingestions. Keywords: Home injury, COVID-19, Pandemic
Background Injuries in and around the home, including ingestions, affect individuals across the lifespan (Mack et al. 2013; Gielen et al. 2015; McDonald et al. 2016). The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) last reported data on injuries that occurred in U.S. households in 2007, finding that 44% of all reported medically attended injury episodes occurred in or around the home (Chen et al. 2009). The increased exposure to potentially hazardous home environments and activities caused by stay-athome orders and closures of schools may be responsible for a new spate of home injuries in 2020. There is no * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, 624 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
near real time medical surveillance system for home injuries in the U.S., a gap that we address through the use of a national survey. This brief report describes the number and type of home injuries among a nationally representative sample of U.S. households surveyed between June 17 and 29, 2020, when states were at various stages of re-opening and had stay-at-home recommendations. To identify risk factors for these injuries, we compare household characteristics between those that reported injuries and/or ingestions to those that did not.
Methods We added ho
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