ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Injury Prevention and Control
Characteristics of Severe Injuries among Children and Adolescents in A Sub-National Trauma Registry in Saudi Arabia
Provisionally accepted
Meshal Alqahtani1,2*
Lubna Alnasser3
Maram Aldosari2
Yasir Almuzaini4Abdullah Alqahtani3Ibrahim Albabtain3Hala Tamim1- 1Alfaisal University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- 2Public Health Intelligence, Public Health Authority, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- 3Department of Population Health, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- 4Injury Prevention and Control Department, Public Health Authority, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
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Introduction: Children and adolescents constitute nearly 30% of the global population, and injuries within this age group represent a significant public health concern worldwide. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted across five hospitals within the MNG-HA. The Trauma Registry database extracted all pediatric patients with injuries from 2015 to 2022 who were admitted for at least one day to MNG-HA hospitals. The outcome was severe injuries, defined as an Injury Severity Score (ISS) >16, and the characteristics of the patients included various demographic, health, and injury-related factors. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were reported separately for each age group (0-6, 7-12, and 13-19 years). Results: Out of 3,382 patients, 16.8% experienced severe injuries, with a higher prevalence among males. Significant associations with severe injuries included drowning, poisoning, and assault in the 0-6 age group; abdominal/spine injuries and motor vehicle crashes, in the 7-12 age group; and poisoning and intentional self-harm in adolescents. Conclusion: This study identifies critical factors associated with severe injuries across age groups, informing targeted interventions to reduce injury risk in Saudi Arabia.
Keywords: Children, adolescents, Severe injuries, Saudi Arabia, ISS
Received: 21 Jun 2025; Accepted: 03 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Alqahtani, Alnasser, Aldosari, Almuzaini, Alqahtani, Albabtain and Tamim. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Meshal Alqahtani, alqahtanimeshal96@gmail.com
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