Prevalence and Social Correlates of Injury Among In-School Adolescents in Botswana

Injury is a significant public health concern that has received limited attention in Africa. There is in particular a lack of data regarding injury and its social correlates among in-school adolescents in Botswana. This article discusses how cross-sectional data from the 2005 Botswana Global School-based Health Survey (GSHS) were analysed with the aim of estimating the incidence and social correlates of serious injury. Results indicated that of the 2 197 students, 65.8% (68.1% among boys and 63.8% among girls) had sustained at least one serious injury during the previous 12 months. Variables positively associated with the outcome of serious injury during the past 12 months in univariate analysis were current smoking, current alcohol use, excessive drinking, illicit drug use, truancy, bullied and having gone hungry, while in multivariate analysis being bullied, having gone hungry and truancy remained associated with serious injury during the past 12 months.