Healthy settings for young people in Canada

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How are Young People Injured?

Injuries to young people are caused by many different activities. Figures 6.8 to 6.10 show the range of activities associated with occurrence of injuries for students in Grades 6, 8, and 10 respectively. It is clear that sports are a major cause of injury across grade and gender.

Although the percentage of injuries caused by physical fights is small compared with sports (Figures 6.8 to 6.10), violence can clearly have a lasting impact on various aspects of health that goes beyond the violent encounter and associated physical injury. Injuries caused by work-related activities are also uncommon, although they increase in the older age groups as young people enter the formal workforce.

 

Figure 6.11 shows that the percentage of injuries that happen during organized activities tends to increase with advancing grade. These high percentages reflect the general increased level of organized activities in young people’s lives as they grow and develop. Research shows that sports represent a large portion of the organized activities during which young people experience injuries.

Where are young people injured?

Table 6.12 shows that the vast majority of injuries to young people happen at sports facilities (16 to 43%), at home or in yards (17 to 35%), or in school at recess or lunch (10 to 19%). Injuries that occur at sports facilities or fields increase notably in older grades, while injuries that happen at home or during school hours decline with age.

6.12 Locations where injuries happen, by grade and gender (%)

	Grade 6		Grade 7		Grade 8		Grade 9		Grade 10
	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys	Girls
Home or yard	27	35	19	32	19	24	17	21	17	21
Sports facility or field	24	16	27	18	33	30	42	35	43	37
School at recess or lunch	18	19	17	19	16	16	10	16	13	13
School after hours	4	2	4	6	4	6	5	6	4	6
Street or parking lot	10	8	11	9	12	8	10	6	10	5
Other	17	20	23	18	16	16	17	16	14	18

Where are young people’s injuries treated?

Young people seek medical care from a variety of sources following the occurrence of an injury. The most common sources, shown by grade in Figures 6.13 to 6.15, are a doctor’s office or health clinic, followed by an emergency room. The proportion of injuries receiving treatment in emergency rooms increases in the older grades, while the proportion requiring overnight hospital admission decreases. Visits to school health services for treatment of injuries are rare at all grade levels, probably reflecting the lack of school nurses in many Canadian schools. In general, the patterns of treatment observed by gender are quite consistent across the grades.

The proportion of students with injuries requiring an overnight hospital stay are charted for three survey years in Figure 6.16. In general, there is no clear trend over time for these more serious injuries.

Figure 6.17 shows that the types of injury-causing activities most likely to lead to significant medical treatment include motor vehicle events, fighting, and biking. Significant medical treatment is defined on the HBSC survey as casting, stitches, surgery, or hospital admission. It is surprising that, although sports are a more frequent cause of injury among young people (see Figures 6.8 to 6.10), sports injuries are less likely to require significant medical treatment.

Data on peer violence and weapon carrying are presented in Chapter 5 on Bullying and Fighting.

 

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