Study of epidemiological characteristics of injuries among minority undergraduates in Jiangsu Province

Objective To examine the epidemiological features and relative risk factors of injuries among minority undergraduates. Methods A total of 4 233 undergraduates were selected by stratified random cluster sampling from nine colleges under jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province and 236 among them were minority. A self-designed questionnaire was administered to investigate the status of injuries and injuries related knowledge-attitude-practice (KAP) theory the differences between minority and the Han nationality undergraduates was analyzed, meanwhile the influencing factors of injuries was explored. Results The total incidence, person-time incidence and repeated incidence of injuries in minority undergraduates were 25.0%, 33.9% and 3.4% respectively, which were higher than those in the Han nationality undergraduates (all P<0.05). Compared with the Han nationality undergraduates, minority undergraduates had a higher proportion of intentional injury (χ²=4.896, P=0.027), a lower recovery proportion (χ²=12.760, P<0.001), a longer off days (Z=2.244, P=0.025) and a longer hospitalization days because of injury (Z=4.359, P<0.001). Among minority undergraduates, male (OR=1.94), the knowledge scored lower (OR=3.31) and the behavior scored lower (OR=2.24) were identified as high-risk factors while using female, the knowledge scored higher and the behavior scored higher as references respectively. Conclusions This survey showed that minority undergraduates are the high risk population of injuries. Variety of health education about injuries should be established according to the characteristics of injuries among minority undergraduates, so as to reduce the incidence of injuries.