Risk of unintentional injury in children with a parent with a diagnosed mental illness in Alberta, Canada

BACKGROUND: Children of parents with diagnosed mental health and addiction conditions have a higher risk of unintentional injuries compared with children of parents without those conditions. This study quantifies and compares the risk of unintentional injury among children whose parents are diagnosed with mood and anxiety disorders compared with children of parents without these conditions in Alberta, Canada. METHODS: This retrospective case-control study used administrative health data to identify cases of children aged 0-9 with an unintentional injury and matched controls without an unintentional injury. Children were identified as 'infant', 'preschool' or 'school-age' based on age at injury and were linked to their parents' health records. Conditional logistic regression estimated unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of unintentional injury given parental anxiety or mood disorder compared with unintentional injury given no parental mental health and addiction conditions. RESULTS: The crude unadjusted risk of unintentional injury was elevated among children with parents diagnosed with anxiety (infant OR=1.24; preschool OR=1.25; school-age OR=1.18) and mood (infant OR=1.32; preschool OR=1.15; school-age OR=1.22) disorders compared with children of parents without those disorders. Following propensity score adjustment and adjustment for presence of other mental health and addiction conditions, all ORs remained positive. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with international findings, parental diagnosis of mood and anxiety disorders was associated with an increased risk of unintentional injury in children in Alberta, even when adjusting for presence of other disorders. Childhood unintentional injury may impact development and perpetuate a cycle of mental health and addiction conditions, warranting further investigation.