School injury and gender differentials: a prospective cohort study

Abstract

This study assessed the role of certain individual characteristics in school injury among male and female adolescents. The sample included 2,398 subjects attending middle schools and high schools. Respondents completed a self-administered questionnaire at the beginning of the school year. School nurse completed a questionnaire on injury for each school injury occurred during the school year. The data was analyzed with the adjusted odds ratios (ORa) computed via the logistic models. The school injury was common (13% for both sexes). Sports/physical training injury was more frequent among girls (8.8% vs. 6.6%, P < 0.05) contrarily to the other types of injury (4.6% vs. 8.8%, P = 0.001). Sports/physical training injury was strongly associated with age <15 years (ORa 3.42) and presence of previous injury (2.63) among boys, and with age <15 years (2.02), presence of previous injury (2.94), not easily irritated (1.89), and irresponsible (1.59) among girls. The other types of injury were highly related to age <15 years (ORa 4.18), frequent use of psychotropic drugs (1.76), not living with both parents (1.65), being not calm (2.03), and presence of previous injury (1.82) among boys, and to age <15 years (2.59), obesity (3.24), and being not calm (1.84) among girls. The present study identified a number of potential risk factors for school injury among male and female adolescents. Preventive measures should be taken to make adolescents, their parents and teachers more aware of the risks and to find remedial measures.