Accidents in the first three years of life.

This study is concerned with a group of normal children. It reports a correlation between the condition of a baby at birth, as recorded by a modified Apgar scale, and a future history of accidental injury before age three. Various other behavioural characteristics were also associated with having scored relatively poorly on the Apgar type scale; in addition, there was some evidence that the pregnancies and previous obstetric histories of the mothers of poor birth status babies had been different. Possible connections between the behavioural characteristics and a liability to accidental injury are discussed, as is the part played by the relatively poor status at birth.