A Study on the Occurrences of Accidents among Children in Nursery School and Kindergartens

도시지역 어린이집 및 유치원 어린이의 안전사고 발생 실태

The purpose of this study was to determine how often toddlers and preschoolers in kindergartens have accidents and what factors affect the accident rate. The study population consisted of 150 children who were attending at nursery schools and 150 children who were attending at kindergartens. The data was collected from ten nursery schools and five kindergartens from five districts in Daegu. The questionnaires were distributed to teachers of participating nursery schools and kindergartens to be completed using nursing care records in the institutions and by interviewing children's parents about all of the accidents happened in a previous year. Data were collected during the period of August 1 through 31, 2002. The results of the study are as follow: 1. Among 300 children, 282 had 506 accidental injuries during the study period. 2. The month, the day and the time with the highest accident rate were April. Monday, and between 2 and 4 o'clock in the afternoon, respectively. 3. Locations where the injury took place most included nursery schools or kindergartens, around the homes of the children, and inside the home. 4. Most accidents were occurred due to lack of carefulness of the children, and the most prevalent forms of injury was abrasions. 5. Most frequently injured part of the body was legs of the children. 6. Most injuries were healed within three days and required first aid measures to disinfect the wound. Mostly, these were performed by family members at home. Some children go to the hospital to suture the open wound. Most frequent type of complication was scar formation and the cost of the treatment ranged from 9,000 to 30,000 won. 7. Children's age. sex, birth order. personality. type of family composition. type of residency. father's occupation, father's age, and mother's age were significantly related to the frequency of injury among children. Children who were in nursery schools and kindergartens need their assessment for accident involving condition according to seasons, time. place. This study provided a very useful and important data to prepare accident prevention education program and accident prevention strategies, and to develop Injury Surveillance System.