DUBAI // Children who suffer injuries at school are most likely to do so from falls, according to a study published in the International Journal of Preventive Medicine Research.
Researchers looked at the nature and frequency of injuries at private schools in Bur Dubai and Deira through a pilot study of male and female pupils in grades 7 to 12.
It also estimated that the cost of treating pupils in Dubai private schools was more than Dh900,000 a year.
After falls (62 per cent) the most common injuries were cuts (13 per cent), with accidental poisoning the rarest injury (1 per cent).
The study was conducted by the School and Educational Institutions Health Unit, the Health Affairs Department, the Primary Health Care Services Sector and Dubai Health Authority.
They attributed the cause of 36 per cent of the injuries to lacking school safety measures and 10 per cent to student exhaustion.
According to a recent report by the World Health Organisation and Unicef, more than 2,000 children die each day globally as a result of unintentional or accidental injuries.
Injury risk is strongly linked to socio-economic factors.
In poor households, for example, parents may not be able to properly care for or supervise their children.
Also, children living in poverty may be exposed to hazardous environments such as fast-moving traffic, lack of safe facilities for playing, cramped living conditions without proper kitchens, unprotected windows and roofs and unsafe stairs, the report said.
nwebster@thenational.ae
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