National Trends of Pediatric Aspirated/Ingested Foreign Bodies

Foreign body (FB) aspiration/ingestion in children represents a major cause of hospital admission and mortality. Evaluating risk factors and identifying trends in specific FB products could improve targeted health literacy and policy changes. A cross-sectional study querying emergency department patients less than 18 years old with a diagnosis of aspirated/ingested FB was conducted using the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System database between 2010 and 2020. Incidence rates per 100 000 people-year were calculated and multivariate analyses were performed to identify risk factors for hospital admission and mortality. There has been a significantly decreasing rate of aspirated (−23.6%; P =.013) but not ingested FB (−9.4%; P =.066) within the study period. Within pediatric aspirated FB, black compared with white patients had decreased odds of same hospital admission (odds ratio [OR]: 0.8), but increased odds of transfer admission (OR: 1.6) and mortality (OR: 9.2) (all, P <.001).