Unintentional Injury Mortality Among Children Under Five Years - China, 2006-2017

What is already known about this topic? Unintentional injuries among children aged under five years is still a serious public health problem in China. Epidemiological characteristics of under-five unintentional injury are reported in single provinces and cities for China but not nationally based on the Disease Surveillance Points (DSPs) dataset. What is added by this report? Unintentional injury mortality rates for under-five decreased substantially between 2006 and 2017 in China, with the decrease occurring primarily for males and rural children. Children living in rural areas and males had higher unintentional injury mortality rates than children in urban areas and females. The major fatal types of under-five unintentional injury were drowning and road injury. What are the implications for public health practice? Further interventions need to be taken in accordance with the main types of unintentional injuries, especially effective prevention strategies used in other countries or recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Even with equal access to injury prevention and control services for different sexes, policy efforts should focus on higher-risk populations, especially children aged under five years who are males or reside in rural areas.