Nearly a quarter of dog bite hospitalisations children under 5

4.00pm

Children aged four and under account for nearly 24 per cent of the cases of hospitalisation for dog bite injuries in this country, researchers from the Dunedin School of Medicine found.

In an article in the New Zealand Medical Journal published today the three researchers said dog bite injuries were a significant public health problem.

They estimated there were 3025 hospitalisations, and one fatality, as a result of dog bite injuries between 1989 and 2001. A further 94 hospitalisations were estimated to have resulted from people being struck by a dog, rather than bitten.

The incidence of dog bites had increased until 1996, following an increasing trend identified in an earlier report between 1979 and 1988, the researchers found.

A decrease for three years after 1996 could be due to the public responding to publicity about dog control at the time, along with the introduction and enforcement of strict dog control law in 1996.

The researchers were unsure how much a higher incidence recorded in 2000 and 2001 was the result of a real change in risk, or of the way data was recorded.

Ongoing monitoring was needed to determine if dog control policies were having the intended effect, they said.

During the 13-year study period 9450 hospital inpatient days had resulted from dog bite injuries. Three days had been the mean hospital stay, with 56 days the longest.

The article was written by PhD student Louise Marsh, injury prevention research unit director John Langley, and senior lecturer in health policy Robin Gauld -- all from the Dunedin School of Medicine's department of preventive and social medicine.

They found that the age group with the most hospitalisations as a result of dog bite injuries was children under five -- with 23.8 per cent of cases. The second most hospitalised group was those aged five to nine, accounting for 15 per cent of cases.

Males made up 60.5 per cent of the hospitalisations.

The one death during the study period was the only fatality from dog bites identified in this country from 1979, the article said.

That was consistent with other developed countries where death due to dog bites had been very rare.

High rates of hospitalisation among children could probably be explained by their lack of physical strength or motor skills to ward off an attacking dog, the article said.

Immaturity and lack of judgment might sometimes lead children to act in ways animals perceived as threatening or aggressive, and it had been suggested children under five were more likely to provoke animals than older children.

Parents of injured children might be more likely to seek medical attention, and young children and victims with head injuries might be more likely to be admitted to hospital than other groups.

In more than 85 per cent of the cases involving children under five, and about 65 per cent of cases involving children between five and nine, the bites had been on the head, face or neck.

As victims became older bites to that part of the body became less common, with more than 60 per cent of the bites to those aged 20 to 24 being to an upper limb.

In the 42 per cent of cases that the place where the biting took place was specified, 30 per cent had been at a home -- not necessarily the victim's own -- and 6 per cent on a street or highway.

- NZPA