A review of risk factors for child pedestrian injuries: are they modifiable?

PURPOSE: To identify modifiable risk factors for child pedestrian injuries. DATA SOURCES: (1) MEDLINE search from 1985 to 1995; search term used was traffic accidents; (2) review of reference lists from retrieved articles and books; (3) review of reference lists from three systematic reviews on childhood injuries and (4) consultation with 'key informants'. STUDY SELECTION: All studies that examined the risk factors for child pedestrian injuries were targeted for retrieval. Seventy potentially relevant articles were identified using article titles, and, when available, abstracts. Of the 70 retrieved articles, 44 were later assessed as being relevant. QUALITY ASSESSMENT: Articles were classified on the basis of study design as being either descriptive (hypothesis generating) (26) or analytical (hypothesis testing) (18) studies. Consensus was used for difficult to classify articles. DATA EXTRACTION: Variables judged to be risk factors for child pedestrian injuries were extracted by one author. DATA SYNTHESIS: A qualitative summary of the information extracted from relevant articles is presented in tabular form. RESULTS: Risk factors for child pedestrian injuries were classified as: (1) child, (2) social and cultural, (3) physical environment, and (4) driver. Risk factors within each classification are summarized and discussed.