THE ROLE OF SOCIOECONOMIC-STATUS AND INJURY MORBIDITY RISK IN ADOLESCENTS

Objective: To examine the patterns of socioeconomic status and injury morbidity in adolescents. Designs: Prospective cohort study. Settings: Metropolitan school district in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Participants: There were 1245 students (89%) recruited from 1400 aged 12 to 16 years. Interventions: None. Measures and Results: Baseline variables of socioeconomic status used for this analysis included township of residence (from the 1990 census data ranked by the percentage of households below the poverty level) and employment status of the parents (student self-report). Life-table analysis revealed no differential risk of injury by socioeconomic status. Similar results were found when stratified by gender, race, injury type (sport vs nonsport), and injury place (school vs home). Conclusions: The results indicate that in this cohort of adolescents, socioeconomic status does not seem to be a contributing risk factor for injury.