Australia and Asia

Research has also examined the incidence and prevalence of spinal cord-related issues in specific geographic regions. For instance, Galvin et al. (2013) investigated the incidence of spinal cord dysfunction (SCD) in children in Australia. The study revealed an average incidence rate of 3.8 and 6.5 per million children younger than 15 years for traumatic SCD and non-traumatic SCD, respectively, during the study period. Two studies looked at the incidence of pediatric SCI in Asia. In their recent study, Gutierrez et al. (2019) reviewed the Department of Defense Trauma Registry for pediatric encounters in Iraq and Afghanistan from January 2007 to January 2016 and found that 1% of patients experienced cervical spine fractures. Of those with cervical spine fracture, 17% had documented SCI. Furthermore, the median age of subjects with CSI was 9.5 years of age and 63.9% were male. Most injuries were due to explosions. Another study by Chien et al. (2012) investigated the incidence and risk factors of pediatric SCI in Taiwan through reviews of a nationwide cohort of 8.7 million children under the age of 18. It found the incidence rates of cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and other SCI were 4.06, 0.34, 0.75, and 0.85 per 100,000 person-years, respectively. Male children were significantly more likely to have SCI than females in all SCI groups. In addition, young adults and teenagers were significantly more likely to have cervical SCI than pre-school age children. The authors also noted that children in families of lower socioeconomic status were significantly more likely to have SCI (Chien et al. 2012).