Citation

Burrows S, Swart L, Laflamme L. Int. J. Child Adolesc. Health 2009; 2(1): 117-129.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Nova Science Publishers)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

International recognition of and assistance for injury control efforts are well below that directed at other health problems and their contribution to health divide are overlooked. Objective: To investigate the distribution of the burden of unintentional and intentional injuries among urban South African adolescents and measure the potential for safety improvement associated with them considering sex, race and city-based differences. Study group: Adolescents aged 10-19 years. Methods: For homicides, suicides, transport related and other unintentional deaths, age-standardized rates and population attributable risks are calculated for sex, race and city. Proportions of leading mechanisms of injury are also compared. Results: Adolescent injury rates are very high, particularly for interpersonal violence and transport-related injuries. As expected, male adolescents die of injuries of various kinds to a greater extent than females. Race and city differentials are considerable, especially for homicide and unintentional injuries not related to transport, and point to high potential for improvement. For example, as much as 90% of homicide deaths could be avoided if all adolescents had the same rate as white adolescents. Firearms, sharp objects, hanging and poison ingestion feature prominently in intentional injuries; while pedestrian, passenger, burn and drowning deaths are the leading mechanisms of unintentional deaths. Conclusions: The burden of adolescent intentional and unintentional injury death in urban South Africa is high. Differences observed between race groups and cities reveal substantial potential for improvements in living and commuting conditions. Sex differences, although expected, also deserve further investigation.