A Health Surveillance Update on Canadian Children and Youth

Injuries from Infant Walkers

Despite actions to end the sale of new infant walkers in Canada, injuries associated with their use continue to occur.

Infant walkers have been identified as a cause of injuries in children in Canada and abroad.^(7-10) In Canada in 1989, the infant walker industry and the federal government agreed to a voluntary standard that has resulted in no new infant walkers being sold in Canada.⁽⁷⁾ Yet, injuries associated with the use of these products continue to occur.⁽⁷⁾ Information regarding infant walker-related injuries may be obtained from the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP). CHIRPP is a computerized information system that collects and analyzes data on injuries to people (mainly children) who are seen at the emergency rooms of 10 paediatric hospitals and six general hospitals in Canada.

In 1997, in children less than 2 years of age, there were 132 injuries due to infant walkers resulting in an emergency room visit to one of the participating CHIRPP hospitals. A 1996 CHIRPP report analyzed infant walker-related injuries from 1994-1995 in greater detail.⁽¹¹⁾ Of the 451 infant walker-related injuries reported to CHIRPP in that time period, 445 or 98.7% occurred in children less than 2 years of age, 377 or 83.6% resulted from falls down steps, stairs or from a height, and 41 or 9.1% of the reported injuries resulted in admission to hospital.

The CHIRPP surveillance data have resulted in specific public health interventions to address infant walker-related injuries. In particular, an infant walker recycling program was developed in Winnipeg to recall infant walkers still in use.⁽¹²⁾

Data limitations
There are limitations associated with infant walker-related injury data. The CHIRPP data represent only those injuries seen at the emergency departments of the 16 hospitals in the network. Therefore, the data provided by the CHIRPP database underestimate the true burden of injuries due to infant walkers. As well, hospitals have been added to the CHIRPP network over time, affecting the absolute number of injury reports and limiting the analysis of trends in the number of infant walker injuries.

Summary
Despite voluntary industry actions and some successful public health interventions, injuries due to infant walkers continue to occur in Canada. The CHIRPP hospital-based surveillance system provides valuable child health information on injuries caused by infant walkers. Despite the limitations of the CHIRPP data, ongoing surveillance of infant walker-related injuries is vital to the evaluation of public health efforts to eliminate these totally preventable injuries.

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