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Abstract
Background Maternal mental illness appears to increase the risk of unintentional childhood injuries, which are a common cause of morbidity and mortality in early childhood. However, little is known about the variations in this association by type of injury and child’s age, and studies on the effects of maternal somatic illness on children’s injury risk are scarce.
Methods We used Finnish total population register data from 2000 to 2017 to link 1 369 325 children to their biological mothers and followed them for maternal illness and childhood injuries until the children’s sixth birthday. Cox regression models were used to examine the associations between maternal illness and children’s injuries by type of illness (neurological, psychiatric and cancer), type of injury (transport injuries, falls, burns, drowning or suffocations, poisonings, exposure to inanimate and animate mechanical forces) and child’s age (<1 year-olds, 1–2 year-olds, 3–5 year-olds).
Results After adjustment for family structure, maternal age at birth, maternal education, income, child’s gender, native language and region of residence, children of unwell mothers showed a higher risk of injuries (HR: 1.21, 95% CI: 1.19 to 1.23). This association was clear for maternal neurological (HR: 1.31, 95% CI: 1.26 to 1.36) and psychiatric illnesses (HR: 1.20, 95% CI: 1.18 to 1.23) but inconsistent for cancer. Maternal illness predicted an increased risk of injury across all age groups.
Conclusions Maternal mental and somatic illness may both increase children’s injury risk. Adequate social and parenting support for families with maternal illness may reduce childhood injury.
- accidents
- maternal health
- longitudinal studies
Data availability statement
Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. The data used in this study were collected by register authorities and are not publicly available. Those interested may apply for permission to use these data for scientific research from the register holders Statistics Finland, the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare and the Social Insurance Institution. Data from Statistics Finland: tutkijapalvelut@tilastokeskus.fi. Data from the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare and the Social Insurance Institution: info@findata.fi.
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Data availability statement
Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. The data used in this study were collected by register authorities and are not publicly available. Those interested may apply for permission to use these data for scientific research from the register holders Statistics Finland, the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare and the Social Insurance Institution. Data from Statistics Finland: tutkijapalvelut@tilastokeskus.fi. Data from the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare and the Social Insurance Institution: info@findata.fi.
Footnotes
Twitter @LottaVol
Contributors AOT had the original idea. AOT, NM-S and HR conceived and designed the study. LV conducted the data analyses with the help from NM-S and HR. AOT wrote the first draft of the paper and NM-S and HR made critical revisions. All authors contributed to the writing of the paper and interpretation of the results. All authors approved the final draft of the manuscript. AOT, NM-S and HR are guarantors of the study.
Funding The study was supported by the Strategic Research Council through the Academy of Finland grants for ACElife (352543-352572), LIFECON (308247) and NetResilience (345183), the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No 101019329), Academy of Finland (338869, 331400, 320162, 325857), and grants to the Max Planck - University of Helsinki Center from the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, the Max Planck Society, University of Helsinki, and Cities of Helsinki, Vantaa and Espoo.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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