J Prev Med Public Health.  2005 May;38(2):163-169.

An Epidemiological Study for Child Pedestrian Traffic Injuries that Occurred in School-zone

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Preventive Medicine, Seonam University College of Medicine, Korea. sskweonx@netian.com

Abstract


OBJECTIVES
Pedestrian traffic injuries have been an important cause of childhood mortality and morbidity for decades. The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiological characteristics of child pedestrian traffic injuries that occurred during 2000 in one metropolitan city and its school-zones, and to determine the factors associated with those accidents. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed in 2001. Police records were used to identify the cases of pedestrian injury. Children aged between 6 and 15 years, injured during road walking, were included in this study. direct survey of the environmental factors within the schoolzones in study area (n=116) was also performed. Selfadministered questionnaires, via mail and telephone surveys, were used to assess the safety education programmes. The schools were divided into two groups according to the occurrence of pedestrian traffic injuries in their school-zone. RESULTS: Pedestrian injuries (n=597) were found to account for 3.2% of all traffic injuries in the subject area. The epidemiological characteristics were not significantly different between genders. There were some significant risk factors within the environmental factors, such as local road (OR: 2.3, 95% CI=1.05-5.35), heavy traffic volume (OR: 2.2, 95% CI=1.00-5.04), poor visibility of speed-limit signs (OR: 2.8, 95% CI=1.25-6.42), no separation of pedestrian routes from cars (OR: 2.6, 95% CI=1.02-6.75) and barriers on the pedestrian routes (OR: 2.2, 95% CI=1.01-5.08). Only one factor, that of education in a safety-park (OR: 0.3, 95% CI=0.09-0.96), was significantly associated in the traffic and pedestrian safety education factors. CONCLUSION: Significant associations with pedestrian injury risk were identified in some of the modifiable environmental factors than in the educational factors.

Keyword

Pedestrian injury; Risk factor; Primary school

MeSH Terms

*Accidents, Traffic
Adolescent
Child
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Korea/epidemiology
Male
*Schools
*Walking
Wounds and Injuries/*epidemiology
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