Nonfatal Injuries and Psychosocial Correlates among Middle School Students in Cambodia and Vietnam

Abstract

The aim of the study was to estimate the prevalence and psychosocial correlates of nonfatal injury among middle school students in Cambodia and Vietnam. Cross-sectional data from 7137 school children (mean age 15.5 years, SD = 1.4) who were randomly sampled for participation in nationally representative Global School-based Health Surveys (GSHS) in Cambodia and Vietnam were analyzed. The proportion of school children reporting one or more serious injuries in the past year was 22.6% among boys and 17.5% among girls in Cambodia and 34.3% among boys and 25.1% among girls in Vietnam. The most prevalent cause of the most serious injury in Cambodia was traffic injuries (4.7% among boys and 4.3% among girls) and in Vietnam it was falls (10.0% among boys and 7.0% among girls). In multinomial logistic regression analyses, experiencing hunger (as an indicator for low socioeconomic status) and drug use were associated with having sustained one injury and two or more injuries in the past 12 months in Cambodia. In addition, poor mental health was associated with two or more injuries. In Vietnam, being male, experiencing hunger, current alcohol use, poor mental health and ever having had sex were associated with having sustained one injury and two or more injuries in the past 12 months. Several psychosocial variables were identified which could help in designing injury prevention strategies among middle school children in Cambodia and Vietnam.

Probing the Psychosocial Correlates of Unintentional Injuries Among Grade-School Children: A Comparison of Urban and Migrant Students in China

“…Sun (Sun et al 2006) found the occurrence of school injuries that resulted in medical attendance was 5.22% among primary and middle school students in Maanshan City, eastern China. Burn, sprains/fracture and animal bite were top three prevalent injuries, which was consistent with previous studies in Asia (Bhamkar et al 2016;Li et al 2013;Peltzer and Pengpid 2017). More importantly, we found migrant children were more likely to suffer from any unintentional injury and most of the specific injuries.…”

“…A survey across 7 European regions suggested that mother-reported internalizing problems (scores above the cut-point of emotional problems, hyperactivity, and conduct problems) were associated with (Keyes et al 2014). A possible mechanism for these associations could be a stronger propensity among these children to engage in potentially injury-inducing behavior such as fighting with schoolmates (Peltzer and Pengpid 2017), stimulating in dangerous activities (Steinberg et al 2008), and disregarding public rules. Further, suicide ideation was highly associated with injury incidence, the outcome was also previously found (Peltzer andPengpid 2012, 2017).…”

“…In this study, the Cronbach's alpha coefficient of each subscale was 0.76 for emotional symptoms; 0.72 for conduct problems; 0.77 for hyperactivity; 0.67 for peer problems, and 0.79 for prosocial behavior. Suicide ideation, as a potential psychological risk factor on unintentional injury (Peltzer and Pengpid 2017), was assessed by a question: "Did you have suicidal thoughts during the past 2 weeks? The responses "I had thoughts of killing myself" and "I had thoughts of killing myself but I wouldn't carry them out" were identified as a "yes" answer.…”

“…The prevalence of unintentional injuries during the past 12 months was 17.3% in Europe (Keyes et al 2014), 24% in Canada (Gilbride et al 2006), 33.9% in Jordan (ALBashtawy et al 2016, 48% in Yemen (Alshahethi 2014), and 46.8% in Thailand (Peltzer and Pengpid 2012). The most common injuries were dislocations and sprains, open wounds, and superficial injuries and contusions (Spady et al 2004); Falls, animal bites, traffic accidents, and burns were leading causes of these injuries (Bhamkar et al 2016;Peltzer and Pengpid 2017).…”

<p>Unintentional injuries and socio-psychological correlates among school-going adolescents in four ASEAN countries</p>

“…“Unintentional injuries are the largest source of premature morbidity and mortality and the leading cause of death among adolescents 10–19 years of age.”1 The South-East Asian region is disproportionally affected by the world’s unintentional injury-related deaths 2. The prevalence of past 12-month serious injuries among adolescents in “Association of Southeast Asian Member States (ASEAN)” was for example, in 20.1% in 2013 Cambodia,3 45.9% in 2008 in Indonesia,4 34.9% in 2012 in Malaysia,5 27.0% in 2007 in Myanmar,4 39.1% in 2003, 54.2% in 2007 and 54.3% in 2011 in the Philippines,6 46.8% in 2008 in Thailand4 and 29.7% in 2013 in Vietnam,3 while it was 40% (median) in “47 low- and middle-income countries.”7…”