Citation

Sahin H, Erkal S. HealthMed 2012; 6(6): 1974-1981.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, DRUNPP)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Accidents have a considerable impact on children's health. They upset the balance in children by affecting their health physically, psychologically and socially. Objectives: This study examined accidents at school among 6th, 7th and 8th grade students and their attitudes and behaviors towards safety measures taken to prevent these incidents. Methods: The study included a sample of 243 students attending Zafer Primary School, İnönü Primary School, Kurtuluş Primary School, Atatürk Primary School and Tevfik İleri Primary School in Ankara, Turkey. A 40-item survey was used to determine the behaviors of students towards safety measures taken to prevent school accidents. Results: It was found that 38.7% of students had experienced at least one school injury during the previous year, the great majority of which (79.8%) involved falls. The behaviors of students towards safety measures to prevent school accidents vary according to gender and whether the students had previously experienced an accident; behaviors in terms of accident prevention measures were more positive among students who had been in an accident during the previous year. Conclusion: In accordance with the findings of the present study; it can be recommended to: 1) Take adequate precautions to protect primary education students from school accidents and to regularly check the application of these measures; 2) To regularly monitor accidents because there is no record of accidents at hospitals or schools; and, accordingly, to determine the schools at which the largest proportion of accidents is experienced and to make necessary arrangements in these schools to prevent accidents, to ensure that areas such as corridors, classrooms, stairs, gardens, school entrances and laboratories, and objects such as desks, windows and radiator used in the building do not have features likely to cause accidents; and to give priority to safety arrangements within classrooms, as this is where most accidents occur; 3) To give primary education students information about accidents and prevention measures within the scope of a separate course, accordingly, to provide them with positive behaviors about the causes of accidents and related prevention measures; and 4) To repeat similar studies on different samples throughout Turkey, to identify potential deficiencies and to initiate restructuring in this matter.

Key words: Primary education students, school injuries, safety measures

Language: en