ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Adolescents are being threatened by several accidents because of entering the new world of adulthood, separation from families, a greater presence in community individually, the lack of knowledge of rules and risk-taking spirit of adolescents, and events. The contribution of these damages and their related costs are higher in developing and low-income countries. The current study was conducted for proper planning focused on reducing accidents that have the highest incidence, evaluating school events, determining the place and time that most accidents happened to students and determining the body part injured. METHODS: A cross-sectional study using a multistage cluster sampling was conducted on 6933 students 11-14 years old (middle school) in 2009-2010 in Isfahan Province. The data were collected through observation and a researcher-made questionnaire and then entered into the EPi6 software, and analyzed by the SPSS 11.5 software and the statistical test of Chi-square. RESULTS: The findings showed that 49.9% of students were girls (n = 3462) and 50.1% (n = 3471) were boys, 84.5% of students (n = 5860) were living in urban areas and 15.5% of students (n = 1073) were living in rural areas. Frequency distribution of incidents was 53.9% (3739 cases) at school and 10.6% (732 cases) on the commuting route. The most injured body part was hand with 1018 cases (18.5%) and foot with 1267 cases (23.1%), and mostly they were injured in boys. CONCLUSIONS: The findings showed that a high percentage of students were injured at school, where the first step to prevent the incidence of such preventable incidents at school is to secure workshop environments and school yards.
