Transcript Slide 1

A PILOT STUDY ON
INTENTIONAL ASSAULT
INJURIES IN CHILDREN
AGES 10 TO 17 YEARS, IN
CANADA
Project Team:
Fahra Rajabali, MSc
Mhairi Nolan, RN
Lise Olsen, BSN, MPH, PhD (cand.)
Guanghong Han, PhD
Mariana Brussoni, PhD
Dorry Smith, MPH
Canadian Injury Prevention & Control
Conference
Halifax, NS
November 1, 2005
Project objectives
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Understand the characteristics and patterns
of intentional physical assault injuries
among children and youth aged 10 to 17
years
Identify how and why the assaults occurred
Examine relevant demographic variables of
the assault victims
Why this came about
• Intentional Injury Among Children and Youths
at BC Children’s Hospital 1997-2001 (CHIRPP
poster)
• Majority of intentional injuries were assaultrelated (39.5%)
• More males than females (79.7%)
• 10-14 year olds (n=131)
• Friday (52%) and Tuesday (45%)
Intentional
80
Intentional injuries among children and youth
visited emergency department, 1997-2001
10000
8000
60
6000
40
4000
20
2000
0
0
1997
1998
Assault-related Injury
Sexual violence
Suicide
1999
year
2000
Maltreatment
Self harm
All Injuries
2001
All Injuries
100
Methods
• Integrated two different methodologies of
research; quantitative and qualitative
• Quantitative approach:
– Aimed at better understanding the risk factors
such as age, sex, location, etc.
– Data from emergency departments (CHIRPP)
• Qualitative approach:
– Gather in-depth interview data from youth
– Obtain a fuller account of the events leading
up to the assault
Quantitative Methods
• Emergency department data
– 14 hospitals in CHIRPP
– Years 1998-2002
– Included
• Siblings, cousins, peers
• All sports
– Excluded
• Parents, relatives or caregivers,
• Police, teachers and security officers
Quantitative Methods
• Emergency department data
– Frequencies and percentages
• Age, sex, location, cause, nature, body part,
mechanism of injury, weapons, alcohol
involvement and treatment
– Chi-square and test for proportions
• Test for the significance of any differences
between groups and proportions in the
distribution
Qualitative Methods
• Interview data
– Open-ended qualitative interviews
– Interview criteria
• Between 10 and 17 years
• Presenting to B.C. Children’s Hospital
Emergency Department in 2002
• Provided written permission to be
contacted for follow-up
– 7 agreed to be interviewed
• CHIRPP form coded for physical assault
Qualitative Methods
• Interview data
– Interviews were audio-taped – with permission
– Participants described the incident in their own
words
– Interview data
• Analyzed using thematic analysis (Boyatzis, 1998)
• NVivo software - used to assist with the coding
process, organization of the data and identified
themes
Quantitative Findings
 Weekdays - 12:00pm - 1:00pm (14.3%)
3:00pm - 4:00pm (12.5%)
 Weekend -
8:00pm – 10:00pm (22.1%)
 Activity when assaulted -quarrel, aggression,
fight or riot (55.9%)
Place of Injury Occurrence
School 32%
On the way to/
from school
22%
Other public
area 7%
Unspecified/
missing 20%
Other 1%
C ommercial/
service area
3%
Own home/
apartment 6%
Other home/
Play and
recreation area instituition 5%
4%
Type of Weapon Used
Foot, knee, leg,
9%
Stick-like
objects, 7%
Sharp Objects,
4%
Hand, fists,
elbow, 49%
Others, 4%
Head, 2%
Bottles, Broken
glass, 2%
Rocks, balls,
2%
Unknown, 19%
Bitten - mouth,
1%
Guns - real, bb
or pellets, 1%
Quantitative Findings
• Alcohol/drug related - common among
males and youth aged 15-19 years
(4.3%)
• Most common body part injured:
– Head/neck (66.4%)
• required treatment, a short observation
stay in the emergency room or
transferred to another hospital
Qualitative Findings
• Most occurred in schools - after class and when
unsupervised
• In several of the assaults - there had been
previous conflicts, arguments or verbal
intimidation between the students
• Some students - knew the assailant (classmates)
• Non school assaults – random attacks
Qualitative Findings
• Help received - from friends, parent,
coach, teachers and adult supervisors
• Bystanders - Their lack of action was
quite notable in this set of interviews
• Weapons used were scissors, screwdriver
and bottle
Limitations
• The hospitals participating in CHIRPP are not
uniformly distributed across the country,
therefore, the data are not representative of
all regions in Canada.
• Complete accuracy and consistency of data
cannot be assumed
• The small sample size for the interviews.
• The time lag between the assault and the
interview
Recommendations for Additional Research
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School program and policies
Role of bystanders
Role of physical environment
Perception from family, peers and teachers
Gender issues
Perpetrator demographics and circumstances
Characteristics of different assault situations and their
outcomes
• Sport-related assault considered separately
Thank you