LAS VEGAS - October 7, 2008 - A second year of data on local child deaths is arming local officials with better information with which to target prevention efforts.

A second annual Child Death Review report commissioned by the Clark County Manager's Office and prepared by UNLV's Nevada Institute for Children's Research and Policy (NICRP) shows that youth are still dying in ways which can be prevented.

But Denise Tanata Ashby, executive director of the NICRP, said the report, which was released today, "allows us to analyze trends in child death data at the county level, which will result in focused, data-driven prevention efforts that target defined areas of need in our valley."

For instance, the report suggests that additional research be conducted and data collected in the areas of risk factors for infant deaths, racial disparities, child welfare and gang involvement.

It also suggests more community outreach and education in the areas of prenatal care, safe driving and proper use of restraints, pool safety and the use of appropriate barriers, proper sleeping conditions for infants and suicide prevention.

The report, which uses data from 2007 gathered by the Clark County Child Death Review Team, shows that the most common forms of preventable child death are by motor vehicle/transportation (16.8 percent), weapon (13.5 percent), and suffocation and strangulation (12.9 percent). Many children also died from drowning and suicide.

"Our goal is to better understand the factors involved in child fatalities so we can work together as a community to prevent these tragedies," said Assistant County Manager Darryl Martin, who oversees the county's social service departments.

The child death team, made up of 52 members from law enforcement, government and the community, reviewed 155 cases of child deaths, which represented about 57 percent of child fatalities in Clark County in 2007, and classified each death according to manner of death.

The fatalities reviewed fell into one of five categories based on manner of death reported by the Clark County Coroner's Office: natural (down five cases from last year to 43), accidental (66, up from 53), suicide (12, up from 9), homicide (15, down from 20) or undetermined (17, down from 18).

Of the cases reviewed, the majority of deaths (101) among children 17 and under in 2007 were ruled either accidental (42.6 percent of cases) or natural (27.7 percent or cases). The 43 percent of fatalities not studied by the review team were cases determined to be natural deaths attributed to medical causes.

Accidental deaths at 66 were up 24.5 percent over the previous year, when there were 53. Nearly two-thirds of the victims were under the age of 4.

Twenty-six deaths were due to motor vehicle accidents, up from 23 in 2006. One in four victims were under the age of 4 and more than one-third were between the ages of 15 and 17.

Drowning was the third-leading cause of accidental death with 11 cases, up from 9 drownings in 2006. The vast majority of children (90.9 percent) were under the age of 4. Nearly all drowning cases were in a pool, hot tub or spa (90.9 percent), while the remaining cases were in a bathtub. In 90 percent of pool drowning cases, according to the report, "the child was last seen in the house and was subsequently left unsupervised between five minutes and one hour. The average period of elapsed time was around 19 minutes since the child was last seen.... [I]n 60 percent of cases no barrier existed to prevent access to the pool or spa. In the remaining cases, 20 percent had a gate and another 20 percent had either a fence or a door blocking entrance to the pool."

Fourteen children died from accidental suffocation, up from nine cases in 2006. More than three-quarters were infants less than 1 year old and 7.1 percent were between the ages of 1 and 4. More than three out of every four victims (78.6 percent) were boys. Almost 86 percent of the children died in some sort of "sleeping environment," 7.1 percent choked on food and 7.1 percent choked on some other object. Of those who died in a sleeping environment, more than half (58.3 percent) were on an adult mattress, one-third were in a crib or bassinette and 8.3 percent were sleeping on a couch. In two-thirds of these cases, the infant was sleeping with his or her parent.

Youth suicides were up one-third with 12 deaths, with one-third of those involving victims 14 years old and younger.

Fifteen youth were homicide victims and eight of them died through the use of firearms. This represents a 25-percent reduction from 2006, when there were 20 cases of homicide. "One-quarter of victims were killed during the commission of a crime, 12.5 percent were killed during a drive-by shooting, and one-third (37.5%) were killed in random violence," according to the report.

In homicide cases where guns were not used, all the victims were under the age of 4. "In these non-firearm homicides, 85.7 percent (seven cases) were committed by a person without using a weapon. In those cases, the child was beaten, punched, and pushed," the report found. "Approximately 15 percent were committed using a knife. In more than half (57.1 percent) of the cases, the perpetrator was a relative and in 42.9 percent of cases the perpetrator was a friend (includes parent's boyfriend or girlfriend)."

"Any child fatality is a tragedy for this community," said Commission Chairman Rory Reid. "This report is the latest of our efforts to better understand the reasons for child fatalities in Clark County and how we as a community can collectively develop prevention measures that support our families, and in turn, protect our children."

The full report is available on the NICRP web site at nic.unlv.edu. A link to the report is also posted online at www.accessclarkcounty.com.

Coordinated through the UNLV School of Public Health, The NICRP is dedicated to advancing awareness and understanding of children's issues in Nevada. By conducting academic and community-based research, the NICRP develops policy recommendations and constructs and evaluates programs through collaborations with community agencies and policymakers throughout the state.