Analysis of Behavioural Characteristics Related to Unintentional Injury in Southeast Chinese Adolescents: Evidence from a School-Based Survey

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2017 Mar 1;14(3):241. doi: 10.3390/ijerph14030241.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the epidemiological features of common unintentional injury-related behaviours and to identify possible factors that lead to these unsafe behaviours among adolescents. A representative sample of 10,806 students was recruited from 77 schools by using the two-stage stratified random sampling method. All participants took a self-administered questionnaires and data were analysed to estimate the prevalence of unintentional injury-related behaviours and to identify the influential factors for these behaviours. The prevalence of unsafe swimming, jaywalking, illegal bicycling and not wearing a seat belt was 6.35%, 33.08%, 18.10% and 15.73%, respectively. The proportion of students who had two, three or four unintentional injury-related behaviours was 14.59%, 4.27% and 0.57%, respectively. Multiple regression analysis showed that male adolescents, living in an urban area and attending a vocational-technical school might contribute to the occurrence of four unintentional injury-related behaviours. In addition, the marital status of parents and father with a college degree or above were negatively associated with the adolescent's behaviour of not wearing a seat belt. Considering diverse epidemiological characteristics of unintentional injury-related behaviours among adolescents, targeted interventions such as enhancing self-protection capabilities and strengthening safety consciousness by family, school and related departments should be implemented to lower the occurrence of unintentional injury-related behaviours.

Keywords: influence factors; logistic regression analysis; students; unintentional injury.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adolescent Behavior*
  • Asian People
  • China
  • Educational Status
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Marital Status
  • Parents
  • Risk-Taking*
  • Safety*
  • Schools
  • Students / statistics & numerical data*
  • Surveys and Questionnaires