Citation

Linakis JG, Amanullah S, Mello MJ. Acad. Emerg. Med. 2006; 13(5): 567-570.

Affiliation

Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Potter 1, Rhode Island Hospital, 593 Eddy Street, Providence, RI 02903. james_linakis_phd@brown.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1197/j.aem.2005.11.073

PMID

16551772

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To compare the demographic and injury characteristics of children visiting the emergency department (ED) for nonfatal injuries occurring at school with those of same-aged children who were injured outside of school. METHODS: Data from a stratified probability sample of U.S. hospitals providing emergency services in the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) were analyzed for 2001 and 2002. School and nonschool injury-related ED visits were analyzed for patients who were 5 through 19 years of age. RESULTS: There were an estimated 58,147,518 injury visits in all ages to the ED in 2001 and 2002. Injuries to school-aged children (ages 5-19) accounted for an estimated 15,405,392 (26%) visits overall, of which 1,859,215 occurred at school (16.5% of visits by school-aged children when location of injury was known). Males accounted for 63% of injuries at school; middle-school children (ages 10-14 yr) accounted for a significantly greater proportion of injuries (46%) than did primary- (5-9 yr, 24%) or secondary-school (15-19 yr, 30%) children (p < 0.001). In contrast, for injuries outside of school, secondary-school children were injured most (40%), followed by middle- (32%) and primary-aged children (27%). Nearly 11% of school injuries were classified as violent, whereas only 6.4% of the nonschool injuries in school-aged children were violent (p < 0.001). Similarly, sports injuries were significantly more common at school (53% of injuries) than outside of school (32.9%; p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: A significant proportion of injuries to school-aged children occur at school. Notable differences exist between the epidemiology of in- and out-of-school injuries. The nature of these injuries differs by age group. Efforts to reduce school injuries will require that these differences be examined further and incorporated into prevention initiatives.