Abstract
Introduction. Injuries represent one of the major challenges of modern public health being the third main killer in the European region according to WHO. In this paper we present the incidence of child injuries in the South Kazakhstan region (SKR) in 2012-2016. Methods. We calculated average gender-specific incidence rates of child injuries (0-17 years) for the abovementioned time period for all administrative-territorial units of the SKR using the absolute data obtained from the official statistics. In addition we calculated trends for each administrative-territorial units using linear regression. Regression coefficients with 95 % confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using Stata software. Results. Districts with the highest incidence of child injuries (per 1 000) were identified: Ordabasinsky (3 267.6), Baidibeksky (3 192.4), Kazygurtsky (3 069.0), Otyrarsky (2 993.6) and Suzaksky (2 826.2). The most favorable situation in the region was found in Shymkent city (969.3 per 1 000). Decreasing trend of child injuries in both genders was observed only in Tolebiysky district with the average reduction of incidence to 195.3 per 1 000 child population. Conclusions. Extremely high incidence rates of child injuries were observed in South Kazakhstan region. Moreover, the situation does not seem to improve over time except one district. Urgent public health measures are needed on both individual and population level to improve the situation.