Accidental injuries during the physical education class and some of their etiological factors

Abstract

There were 21, 282 accidental injuries which occurred among primary school children,junior and senior high school students in Kyoto Prefecture during the period from April 1984 to March 1985. In order to obtain a clue for prevention of accidents during the physical education class, records of these accidents were analysed. Among primary school children, the number of accidental injuries during the physical education class increased as the grade went up, and so did the ratio of those to all the injuries of each grade. The same could be said to the ratio of those among junior and seniro high school students. As to dislocations, sprains, and fractures, their respective proportions of the injuries during the physical education class to all the injuries of each category were considerably great. When the multidimensional frequency table of injuries concerning the six factors (i.e., kind of the injury, region of the body injured, occasion, weather, day of the week and sex) were analyzed by using a supposed log-linear model, the well fitted log-linear model contained the six main effect terms and several interaction terms caused by two factors and three factors in all the four groups according to the grade. Results above indicate that the frequencies of accidental injuries during the physical education class and during all the other school hours were different according to kind of the injury in all groups, and furthermore, the relation between these two factors fluctuated by region of the body injured. It is also suggested that the appearance of accidental injuries became more complicated as the grade went up. From the model, it is indicated that the ratio of injuries occurred during the physical education class (the number of injuries during the physical education class/the number of injuries during all the other school hours) was considerably great in cases of dislocations and sprains on the trunk among primary school children, those on the head, the face and the neck among junior high school students, and those on the arm among high school students. It is also indicated that the expected number of injuries during the physical education class was greater in cases of dislocations and sprains on the arm among primary school children, and those on the leg among junior and senior high school students.