Epidemiology of injuries in a large, urban school district

Abstract

Injuries represent the single greatest threat to the health and well-being of US children. A large number of childhood injuries are sustained in schools, yet little is currently known of the epidemiologic features of school-related injuries. A surveillance of injuries occurring in a large, urban school district during a 2-year period was conducted. Nurses in each of the district's 96 schools completed reporting forms on all injuries meeting standardized criteria, and both principals and nurses completed questionnaires on school characteristics that were judged potentially important to the injury rate in individual schools. A total of 5,379 injuries were reported, among the district's 55,000 students, for an overall injury rate of 49 injuries/1,000 student-years. Injury rates were higher for boys than girls at all age levels. Self-caused and sports-related injuries comprised nearly half of all those reported, and 14% were related to use of playground or sports equipment. Eighteen percent of injuries were severe, and playground- and equipment-related injuries were significantly more likely to be severe (P less than .001). Rates of injury among individual schools varied markedly, with schools at the two extremes separated by a 25-fold difference in rates. Higher overall injury rates were found in schools with longer hours, alternative educational programs, less experienced school nurses, and lower student-to-staff ratios (P less than .0001).