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Abstract
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This abstract is from proceedings of the Safety 2012 World Conference.
Background Child injuries have been a significant public health problem worldwide. Although information technology is becoming the backbone of all injury surveillance systems, many child injury data collections are resource intensive, especially in less-developed areas.
Objectives To describe the epidemiological profile for injured school children using the School Based Injury Surveillance System (SBISS) established in Jiangsu Province of China; and to demonstrate this SBISS is a useful tool to overcome resource deficiencies and to improve child injury prevention at schools.
Methods The SBISS employs a network-based electronic reporting system for public schools in Jiangsu, and adopts WHO standardised injury scales to collect injury information for school children graded 1-12. It uses available resources and makes documentation readily available for schools. Data are entered online at schools and verifications are conducted manually. We collected data for injured children aged 6-18 years during September 2011 to June 2012 to describe the distributions of injury severity, mechanisms, injured body regions, place of occurrence, and activity when injured.
Results The SBISS now covers 1.8% school children in Jiangsu and reported 2358 injuries to date. The morbidity of injuries was 4.16%. Among all injuries, about 6.4% lost their lives or disabled or function limited. Falls was the principal injury mechanisms accounting for 49.9% in total, followed by sharp injuries (22.6%). Lower limbs were the most common injured body regions, accounting for 38.3%. The majority of children were injured at classroom and school playground while doing sports and entertainment activities.
Significance The SBISS provides efficient and quality injury information, speeds up the administration process, and lessens workforce allocation. Timely programmes addressing local injury among children are likely to benefit this E-reporting data collection. |