Abstract
Background
Left‐behind children have become a particular concern in mainland China, and unintentional injury among these children has attracted increasing attention. This review aims to present the prevalence of unintentional injury among left‐behind children and subgroups in mainland China.
Methods
A systematic literature search was conducted using four Chinese and two English databases. The included publications were cross‐sectional studies in mainland China, of which the population was recruited according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Information was collected using self‐administered questionnaires. The risk of bias was estimated using the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology, and pooled prevalence was estimated through the DerSimonian‐Laird proportion method.
Results
This review included 34 cross‐sectional studies consisting 58,348 left‐behind children in mainland China. Results showed that the pooled prevalence of unintentional injury was 38.24% (95% confidence interval (CI): 28.40–48.08) among left‐behind children. The prevalence was higher among left‐behind children (38.76%) than among non‐left‐behind children (27.94%), with an odds ratio of 1.65 (95% CI: 1.47–1.85). Furthermore, the prevalence of injury was higher among boys (39.12%) than among girls (28.61%), with an odds ratio of 1.58 (95% CI: 1.41–1.77). Falls had the highest prevalence of 20.79% among the types of unintentional injury. Furthermore, home was the occurrence location with the highest prevalence (16.20%). No significant difference in injury prevalence was observed among left‐behind children without accompanying parents and those with single parent accompanying them.
Conclusions
This review showed a relatively high injury prevalence among left‐behind children in mainland China. Boys had a higher prevalence than girls. Falls had the highest prevalence, and home was the most common occurrence location.