SCHOOL-INJURY DETERMINANTS AND CHARACTERISTICS - DEVELOPING AN INVESTIGATION INSTRUMENT FROM A LITERATURE-REVIEW

The school constitutes an environment of public-health concern since i t is the location of occurrence of a major proportion of injuries sust ained by children. This paper reviews a total of 42 empirical studies dealing with the determinants and characteristics of injuries to schoo l pupils. On the basis of the review, a proposal is made for a special ized instrument (SIIR) dedicated to the analysis and registration of i njuries and incidents at school. It addresses the 'who?', 'where?' and 'what?' questions usually posed in traditional instruments for injury surveillance but places far greater emphasis on the 'how?' and 'why?' questions of injury. SIIR enables the injury phenomenon to be subject ed to greater scrutiny, and is designed to support preventive' work at school level. For one school-year, it is also being employed for the creation of a data register for research and development purposes. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.