Pediatric Water Bead-Related Emergency Visits Increasing in U.S.

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 14, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Pediatric water bead-related emergency department visits are increasing, and they most often involve children younger than 5 years of age, according to a study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.

Holden J. Joynes, from The Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and colleagues used data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System during Jan. 1, 2007, through Dec. 31, 2022, to examine the characteristics and trends of emergency department visits associated with water beads by individuals aged younger than 20 years.

The researchers identified an estimated 8,159 water bead-related visits to U.S. emergency departments based on 307 reported cases; 55.0 percent of the 307 cases involved children younger than 5 years. Overall, 92.2 percent of the cases were treated and released; this finding was consistent across age groups. The highest proportion of cases admitted was among children younger than 5 years of age (10.1 percent); this age group accounted for 89.5 percent of the 19 admissions in the study. All admissions among children younger than 5 years involved ingestion. The most common mechanism of injury was ingestion (45.9 percent), followed by ear canal insertion, nasal insertion, and eye injury (32.6, 11.7, and 8.8 percent, respectively). Ingestions occurred most often in children aged 1 and 2 years (28.4 and 23.4 percent, respectively), while one-fifth of ingestions occurred in those aged 3 and 4 years. From 2021 to 2022, there was a rapid increase in the number of emergency department cases, from 55 to 127.

"Children <5 years old are the most commonly involved age group, usually via water bead ingestion," the authors write. "They represented more than half of emergency department cases and approximately 90 percent of inpatient admissions."

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