School type, stress and sport-related injuries in middle school students in central Taiwan

This study was to examine sports injuries in middle school students, and to identify potential factors associated with sports injuries in this populat ion (aged between 12 and 15 years). Sports injuries were measured by self-r eported questionnaires during 1995 and 1996 among middle school students in Yun-lin, a county in central Taiwan. A total of 13,764 students responded, accounting for a 86% return rate. Among those who responded 10,893 sports injuries were reported in a 2-year period, giving an injury rate of 532.8/1 000 person-year. Male students were approximately three times more likely t han female students to experience sports injuries. Students in private scho ols were at higher risk of sports injuries than in public schools (odds rat io, OR = 1.3). Levels of personal stress (OR = 1.5 and 1.2 for having "thre e or more" and "one or two" stressful life events relative to having no str essful event), higher parental education (OR = 1.5 and 1.2 for students who se parents have "college or higher education level" and "senior-high or mid dle school education" relative to "elementary school or below"), and levels of exercise (OR = 1.6 for exercise frequently comparing to rarely exercise ) were positively associated with the occurrence of sports injury. With the se above findings, we suggest: (1) providing prevention program for sport-r elated injuries firstly in private schools of this population; and (2) furt her studies being conducting to confirm the association between exercise le vel, stress and parental education and the occurrence of sports injuries. ( C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.