Injury-related behaviour among South African high-school students at six sites.
OBJECTIVE
To document and compare prevalence rates of adolescent injury-related risk behaviours at six sites in South Africa.


METHODS
The identical self-administered instrument was used at all sites. Prevalence rates (with 95% confidence intervals) were calculated taking the multistage cluster sampling strategy into account.


METHODS
In Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Mankweng participants were drawn from either grades 8 or 9, and grade 11, while in Queenstown and Umtata they were drawn from grade 11 only. We selected 39 schools in Cape Town and Durban, 33 in Port Elizabeth and 20 in each of the rural areas.


METHODS
Road-related risk behaviour, violence, and suicide attempts.


RESULTS
Across the sites there were high rates of risk behaviour in all domains. For example, in the 12 months preceding the survey an estimated 52.8% of grade 11 males in Cape Town had travelled in the front seat of a motor vehicle without a seatbelt, 33.0% of grade 8 males in Mankweng had bullied others, while 44.5% of the same group had been bullied, and 18.6% of females in Port Elizabeth had attempted suicide. Rates were lower in rural areas for behaviour involving motor vehicles, but there were no consistent urban-rural findings for violence-related behaviour. Females were at higher risk of suicidal behaviour and males were at higher risk of other injury-related behaviour.


CONCLUSIONS
There is a need for effective interventions to reduce the extent of injury-related risk behaviour in adolescents in urban and rural settings.
Flisher
Alan J
AJ
Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health and Adolescent Health Research Institute, University of Cape Town, South Africa. alan@rmh.uct.ac.za
Ward
Catherine L
CL
Liang
Holan
H
Onya
Handsome
H
Mlisa
Nomfundo
N
Terblanche
Susan
S
Bhana
Arvin
A
Parry
Charles D H
CD
Lombard
Carl J
CJ
D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013019:South Africa / Q000453:epidemiology; D013334:Students; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014754:Violence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*