Abstract

• Accidents involving children are an important cause of death and disability. They also have enomorous financial implication. In order to prevent childhood accidents, research and education for safety should be strengthened. The purpose of this study was to determine how often young children have accidents and what factors affect the accident rate. The sample consisted of 771 children who were in the second, third and forth grades of two elementary schools located in Kyung-gi Province. One school had students from middle class families living in apartment complexes and the other, students from lower income families mainly living in single house. The questionnaires included items on the occurrence of accidents and the parents' attitudes regarding accidents during the academic year from March 1997 to February 1998. The questionnaires were distributed to conveniently selected students to be completed by their parents and collected during the period of May 28, to June 6, 1998. The data were analyzed using SAS PC statistical package. The results of the study are as follows : 1. Of 771 student subjects, 393 had 887 accidental injuries during the study period. 2. The month, the day and the time with the highest accident rate were May, Sunday, and between 1 and 4 p.m. each. 3. In the analysis of the location where the injury took place, the most frequent place was on around their homes followed by school and, then, inside the home. 4. Most of the accidents were caused by carelessness on the part of the children and the most frequent type of injury was an abrasion. 5. Children most injured their legs. 6. They were treated at home most often and usually emergency treatment was performed by family members with, disinfection being the main type of first aid. Cost of the treatment ranged from 8,000 to 20,000 won in most cases. 7. House type and parents' education level were statistically significant in chi-square analysis. 8. Parents educate their children about traffic safety most frequently followed by fire safety and, then, prevention of violence. 9. Parents think that prevention of violence should be the most important part of injury prevention education both at school and home. 10. To identify factors related to accident occurrence, multiple logistic regression was performed and the main factors were birth order and house type.
• Keywords: Lower grade elementary school children; Accident

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