Media accounts of unintentional child injury deaths in New Zealand: a teachable moment?

AIM: To review media accounts of fatal child unintentional injury events reported in leading New Zealand newspapers for their completeness and potential to deliver evidence-based injury prevention messages.

METHOD: Media accounts of fatal unintentional child (0-14 years) injury events in New Zealand's four largest newspapers between 2011 and 2015 were reviewed. Variables of interest included: date, mechanism of injury and victim details. The article prominence, presence of prevention messages and case ascertainment for the two leading causes of death (2011 to 2013 only) were evaluated.

RESULTS: Two hundred and forty-two media accounts detailing 122 fatal child injury events (133 deaths) were located for the five-year period. The most common causes of injury were transport-related (56%) and drownings (21%). Only 20% (n=49) of accounts included clear prevention messages. Just over 33% of accounts included images and 66% were located within the first three pages. Case ascertainment in the media accounts was complete for all transport deaths and all but one drowning.

CONCLUSION: The low frequency of prevention messages in the media accounts reviewed highlights a missed opportunity for the dissemination of prevention messages to the New Zealand public. The findings confirm the utility of these accounts as a timely source of fatal child injury information.