A new report says aboriginal children suf-fer from unintentional injuries serious enough to require hospitalization at twice the rate of other kids in Canada.
The Statistics Canada report is based on five years of national data gathered from 2001-2002 to 2005-2006. Figures for Quebec were not included in the analysis.
During that time, 91原创 acute-care hospitals discharged 117,605 children and youth aged 19 and younger who were treated for an unintentional injury.
The report says falls and land transportation injuries were the main reasons that children were sent to hospital.
But gaps in the rates of injuries due to fires, natural environmental causes, drowning or suffocation were greater when rates among aboriginal children were compared to other kids.
Hospitalizations among boys were more common than among girls. But the differences in the rates of injuries among aboriginal girls compared with other girls were greater than the differences between aboriginal and non-aboriginal boys.
Unintentional injuries are what most people would describe as accidents - events in which there is no intent to harm.
Drug reactions and injuries caused by medical errors were not included in the analysis, nor where injuries that caused death.
