Incidence and Prevalence

Understanding the incidence and prevalence of pediatric SCI can facilitate the development and implementation of prevention and intervention programs. In this section, we review the current work on the subject of pediatric SCI incidence and prevalence across the globe.

Recent work by New et al. (2019) mapped the epidemiology of traumatic SCI and non-traumatic spinal cord dysfunction (SCD) in the pediatric population globally through systematically reviewing the relevant literature originating from fourteen countries. The study found that the median traumatic SCI incidence rates globally were, 5.4/million population/year in Asia, East; 9.9/million population/year in Australia, 3.3/million population/year in Western Europe, and 13.2 million population/year in North America (High Income). The median non-traumatic SCD incidence rates were 6.5/million population/year in Australia, 6.2/million population/year in Western Europe, and 2.1/million population/year in North America (High Income). Traumatic SCI was predominantly due to land transport, falls, and sport/recreation, while non-traumatic SCI was mostly caused by tumors and inflammatory/autoimmune causes (New et al. 2019).