Analysis of School Injuries Resulting in Emergency Department or Hospital Admission |
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| Authors: | Edward P. Junkins Jr. MD Stacey Knight MStat Lenora M. Olson MA Amy Lightfoot BS Patricia Keller RN MPH Howard M. Corneli MD |
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| Affiliation: | Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Division of Critical Care Medicine, Primary Children's Medical Center, Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT 84113, USA. ed.junkins@hsc.utah.edu |
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| Abstract: | OBJECTIVE: To describe the epidemiology of school injuries resulting in emergency department (ED) visits, hospital admission, or death. METHODS: Utah statewide school injuries from 1992 to 1996 were probabilistically linked to statewide ED records (1996 only), inpatient hospital records (1992-1996), and death certificate records (1992-1996). RESULTS: There were 43,881 school injuries for the years 1992 through 1996. In 1996, 1,534 of 6,354 total school injuries (17.5%) resulted in ED evaluation. Between 1992 and 1996, 354 school injuries (0.8%) necessitated hospital admission. The overall rates of school injuries (per 1,000 students) of primary (kindergarten-grade 6) and secondary (grades 7-12) school students requiring ED evaluation were 3.29 and 3.28, respectively; for hospital admission, 0.165 and 0.139. Abbreviated Injury Scale-1990 (AIS-90) regions identified in ED patients were the upper extremity (39.2%), face (20.8%), and lower extremity (17.1%), while AIS regions among inpatients were lower extremity (29.1%), upper extremity (26.6%), and head (22.6%). There were a total of 1,123 hospital days, and total charges of $2.16 million. The ED charges totaled $545,000. Median length of hospital stay was 1 day, and median hospital charge was $3,080. There were four fatalities. CONCLUSIONS: This study emphasizes the significance of school injuries and the need for interventions to prevent these injuries |
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| Keywords: | injury school epidemiology severity financial outcome prevention |
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