Pediatric vehicular heatstroke: An analysis of 296 cases from the National Fatality Review Case Reporting System

Figures & data

Figure 1. Incident scenario for PVH deaths (N = 296) and supervisor intent among children left in vehicles (N = 225).

Table 1. Other incident characteristics (N = 296).

Characteristic	N (%)	Characteristic	N (%)	Characteristic	N (%)
Geographic area type		Place		Day of week
Urban	104 (35.1)	Child’s home	110 (37.2)	Weekday	214 (72.3)
Suburban	111 (37.5)	Workplace	50 (16.9)	Weekend	71 (24.0)
Rural	39 (13.2)	Other residence	37 (12.5)	Missing/unknown	11 (3.7)
Missing/unknown	42 (14.2)	Day care center	16 (5.4)
		Business/retail	7 (2.4)
		Other	17 (5.7)
		Missing/unknown	59 (19.9)

Table 2. Child characteristics (N = 296).

Characteristics	N (%)^a	Characteristics	N (%)^a	Characteristics^a	N (%)^a
Race/ethnicity		Sex		Had history of maltreatment
White, non-Hispanic	131 (44.3)	Male	168 (56.8)	Yes	41 (13.9)
Black, non-Hispanic	61 (20.6)	Female	128 (43.2)	No	152 (51.4)
Hispanic	51 (17.2)			Missing/unknown	103 (34.8)
Other, non-Hispanic	27 (9.1)	Had disability/chronic illness
Missing/unknown	26 (8.8)	Yes	14 (4.7)	Had open CPS case at death
		No	210 (70.9)	Yes	18 (6.1)
Age		Missing/unknown	72 (24.3)	No	216 (73.0)
<2 years	172 (58.1)			Missing/unknown	62 (20.9)
2 years or older	124 (41.9)

^a Percentages may not total 100.0 due to rounding.

Table 3. Supervisor characteristics (N = 296).

Characteristic	N (%)^a	Characteristic	N (%)^a	Characteristic	N (%)^a
Supervisor relation to child		Supervisor age		Supervisor sex
Parent	212 (71.6)	18–34 years	123 (41.6)	Male	118 (39.9)
Grandparent	27 (9.1)	35 years or older	81 (27.4)	Female	155 (52.4)
Childcare worker/babysitter	17 (5.7)	Missing/unknown	92 (31.1)	Missing/unknown	23 (7.8)
Aunt/uncle	9 (3.0)
Other relative	6 (2.0)
Other	9 (3.0)
Missing/unknown	16 (5.4)

^a Percentages may not total 100.0 due to rounding.

Figure 2. Age of children who died of PVH (N = 296).

Table 4. Multiple logistic regression models for factors associated with PVH death due to a child being left unattended in a vehicle vs. having gained access independently, controlling for year of death and state.

	Full models		Reduced models
Characteristics^a	Non-imputed OR (95% CI)^b	Imputed OR (95% CI)^b	Non-imputed OR (95% CI)^b	Imputed OR (95% CI)^b
Child age
<2 years	29.4 (5.5–157.7)	25.2 (6.9–92.3)	32.4 (6.0–175.2)	26.7 (7.3–97.2)
Child sex
Male	0.4 (0.1–1.2)	0.4 (0.2–1.1)	0.4 (0.1–1.3)	0.4 (0.2–1.1)
Child had open CPS case
Yes	0.1 (0.0–0.4)	0.2 (0.1–0.9)	0.0 (0.0–0.4)	0.2 (0.0–0.4)
Incident place^c
Child’s home	0.2 (0.0–0.6)	0.2 (0.1–0.6)	0.1 (0.0–0.6)	0.2 (0.1–0.9)
Incident day of week
Weekday	1.8 (0.5–6.0)	1.3 (0.5–3.4)	–	–

^a Reference categories were 2 years or older (child age), female (child sex), no (child open CPS case), other (incident place), and weekend (incident day of week).

^b Adjusted odds ratios; odds ratios excluding 1 bolded.

^c Incident place categories collapsed to home and other to avoid cell suppression.

Table 5. Multiple logistic regression models for factors associated with PVH death incidents occurring at the supervisor’s workplace vs. other locations, controlling for year of death and state.

Characteristics^a	Non-imputed OR (95% CI)^b	Imputed OR (95% CI)^b
Child age
<2 years	5.3 (2.0–13.4)	6.2 (2.4–15.8)
Supervisor relation to child^c
Parent	2.1 (0.8–5.4)	2.7 (1.1–6.7)
Incident day of week
Weekday	5.2 (1.5–18.7)	5.9 (1.7–20.9)
Incident geographic area type
Suburban	1.0 (0.5–2.2)	1.0 (0.5–2.2)
Rural	0.2 (0.0–1.1)	0.2 (0.1–1.1)

^a Reference categories were 2 years or older (child age), other (supervisor relation to child), weekend (incident day of week), and urban (incident geographic area type).

^b Adjusted odds ratios; odds ratios excluding 1 bolded.

^c Supervisor categories collapsed to parent and other to avoid cell suppression.