Injury is a leading cause of death among children and adolescents and accounts for around 16% of the world’s burden of disease reflecting the disproportionate burden of injuries among young people and added years of life lived with disability. It is the poorest children in every country in the world that are at greatest risk of injury and the majority of deaths due to child injury occur in low-income and middle-income countries. The majority of injuries can be prevented or at least controlled and the costs of prevention are much lower than the costs of the consequences of injuries. But injury prevention requires good quality data monitoring and surveillance systems. This article provides an overview of child and adolescent injuries and their risk factors including socioeconomic inequality. Drawing on an original UK case study of data, it illustrates the crucial lack of data and injury surveillance systems to inform prevention.
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