Table 1 Key Findings from Injury Among Young Canadians: A national study of contextual determinants

Overall

• Factors related to the contexts, or environments, where young people learn, live and play have significant impact on their injury experiences.

• Patterns for injury vary by important subgroups of youth. This suggests potential health inequities among youth, such as those who reside in group homes or in foster care, youth who are bullied, or youth living in rural settings.

• Though it varies by age group and gender, at least one-third of all injuries are sports related, and one-half of all serious injuries are from driving or riding in a motor vehicle.

• In both grades 6–8 and 9–10, boys report more injuries and more severe injuries than girls.

• Individual behaviours and activities such as smoking, drinking, impaired driving and illicit or prescription drug use elevate the risk of injury.

Injuries at Home

• The proportion of youth reporting home injuries increased as their community size decreased.

• Youth in foster care, in particular boys in grades 9–10, reported many more home injuries.

• Going to school or bed hungry because there was not enough food at home was associated with home injury. Among boys in grades 9–10, those who frequently went to school or bed hungry were four times more likely to report being injured at home.

Socio-economic Status (SES)

• Individuals of lower SES report the highest incidents of injuries compared with those of average and high SES.

• Youth attending schools in low SES neighbourhoods (those with high proportions of families with low income, less education or single parents) had a greater number of severe injuries.

• Girls of lower SES in all grades had a far greater risk of school injury compared with girls of higher SES.

• Boys in grades 9–10 living in neighbourhoods with high SES had a greater proportion of severe injuries than girls and younger boys.

School-based Injuries

• Taken together, physical activities such as training for a sport, bicycling, skating, walking and running are mechanisms for a third of all severe school injuries.

• Boys and girls who were bullied reported higher proportions of school-based injuries, and had a greater risk of injury in all grades than those not bullied.

Neighborhood Characteristics

• Social characteristics, including a lack of trust within the neighborhood, fear of being taken advantage of by neighbours, feeling there are no good places to spend free time, and that the neighbourhood is not safe place to play, were associated with a greater likelihood of severe injury.

• Physical characteristics of neighbourhoods that were associated with an increased likelihood of severe injuries included the absence of parks for boys and the presence of shabby buildings for girls.

Interactions with Peers

• Peers have a significant influence on a young person’s injury risk. Youth who did not engage in risk behaviours such as alcohol use or smoking were still at increased risk for injury if their peers engaged in these activities.

• The proportion of youth who reported being injured increased as the frequency of participation in physical fighting increased.

• The more frequently a young person communicated and spent time with friends, the greater their injury risk.

• Among girls and younger boys, having close male friends increased the risk for injury.

Substance Use

• Injuries were more common among youth who reported either illicit drug use or the misuse of prescription drugs compared with those who did not use drugs.

• Girls in grades 9–10 who used alcohol, prescription drugs or illicit drugs were more likely to be injured, and the greatest risk was associated with misuse of prescription drugs.

• Among boys and girls, the percentage of injured youth increased as the frequency of binge drinking increased.

• Youth who engaged in binge drinking reported sustaining more on- and off-road motor vehicle injuries than those who did not binge drink.

• The proportion of those severely injured in an on- or off-road motor vehicle collision was approximately double for those who reported being an impaired driver or a passenger of an impaired driver compared with those who were not.

Rurality

• Youth who resided in rural areas reported more injuries per capita than their urban counterparts.

• Boys in rural areas had the highest reports of driving a motor vehicle while drinking alcohol or using drugs.

• Fifteen percent of girls from small urban centres also reported impaired driving which was considerably higher than girls from large urban centres.