Adolescent injuries in relation to economic status: An international perspective

Injuries account for a large proportion of morbidity and needs for medical care in otherwise generally healthy school children. Improved understanding of the social context of injuries could help to focus more effective injury prevention interventions. The Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study is a multinational quadrennial school-based survey conducted since 1983, using representative samples of 11, 13 and 15-year-old students. In 1997–98, 12 countries (Flemish Belgium, Canada, England, Estonia, Hungary, Israel, Lithuania, Poland, Republic of Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the USA) collected information regarding the epidemiology of medically attended non-fatal injuries among school children, thus providing an opportunity to investigate the relationship between the influence of social and economic status and of risk of injury. This study also provides an opportunity to examine the relationships from an international perspective and to show similarities and differences between different countries. The application of the same standard questionnaire in different countries permits analyses of a large sample by combining results obtained from all participating HBSC members. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between self-perceived family economic status and non-fatal injury rates in young adolescents.