Incidence of fall injury among pupils in Yinchuan municipality of Ningxia, 2013

Objective To describe epidemiological characteristics of fall injury among pupils in Yinchuan municipality and to provide evidences for making control policy and intervention on fall injury.Methods A questionnaire survey was carried out among 1 713 pupils at grade 1 to 3 and their parents selected with stratified random cluster sampling from 4 elementary schools in Yinchuan municipality of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region during summer of 2014 and information on fall injury during 2013 among the pupils were collected retrospectively.Results The annual fall incidence was 21.37% among all the pupils in 2013;there was no significant difference in the incidence between the boys and the girls (21.82% vs.20.93%,χ²=0.20;P>0.05),but there was a significant difference in the incidence between rural and urban pupils (27.25% vs.17.50%,χ²=23.15;P<0.01).The top three causes for the fall injuries were tripping (30.33%),falling (25.68%),and being pushed or impacted (18.85%).The fall injuries occurred mainly at home (37.98%),in school (30.05%),and on road or street (25.41%),with more injuries occurred in schools for urban pupils and at homes for rural pupils.The majority of the fall injuries took place during horseplay among peers (29.51%),entertainment activity (28.96%),and physical excercise(13.39%).Conclusion Fall injury is prevalent among pupils in Yinchuan municipality and specific control strategies and interventions are warranted according to incidental characteristics of the injuries.