Prevalence of Injuries among High School Students in Kieni West (District) in Nyeri County, Central Kenya

Background: Injury among high school students has received disproportionately little attention as a public health concern in Kenya.
Objective: To establish the prevalence of injuries occurring among high school students in Kieni West District, Nyeri County, Central Kenya.
Methods: A Cross sectional study design was adopted where stratified random samples were recruited disproportionately to ensure adequate representation of most of segments of student population. Data was collected from 498 students (n = 294) girls and (n = 204) boys who were systematically randomly sampled from 83 classes from all ten schools in Kieni West district. Participants were asked about injuries they had sustained in the preceding 6 months. The injuries were coded using classification methods derived from International Classification of External Causes of Injuries (ICECI). The existing healthcare facilities and health records in the schools were examined and the principals of the schools were interviewed.
Results: A total of 1490 injuries had occurred among the 498 respondents. Boys had higher mean number of injuries per student (3.39±0.65 n = 204) than the girls’ (2.72±0.46, n =294), a difference that was statistically significant (t=12.7, P<0.05, df= 496). The leading causes of injury were falls (31%) and sporting activities (29%). Falls were more common among girls (32%) than among boys and were mainly attributed to slipping and tripping. Boys sustained most of their injuries from sporting activities (32%) particularly from the more impulsive contact sporting activities. However the cause of injury was independent of the gender of the respondents (χ2 = 0.05; P>0.05; df = 4)
Conclusion: Injury is a major but largely neglected contributor of disease burden among high school students in Kenya. The leading causes of these injuries- falls and sporting activities- are all preventable. It is important that effective interventions are developed, implemented and sustained to minimize the impact of injury among students. It is further suggested that safety management in schools should be re-evaluated in a bid to improve safety management status in schools.