A longitudinal study of 6114 preschool children in New Zealand found a lower rate of injuries among Māori or Asian compared with European participants. Between birth and 4.5 years of age, 8% of studied children experienced 1-3 injuries with ≥1 hospitalisation, or ≥4 injuries (high injury group). Compared with European children, the odds of being in the high injury group was 0.7 (95% CI 0.5-0.97) for Māori children and 0.5 (95% CI 0.3-0.7) for Asian children, after accounting for antenatal, sociodemographic and psychosocial variables. Injury category was associated with maternal factors, family factors, social factors and service use, after adjustment for ethnicity and child variables (gender, temperament, level of activity and behaviour difficulties).
