Green Cross: Collecting Injury Data at Schools

Abstract

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</p><p>Unintentional injuries are a major cause of health losses and untimely deaths among children and adolescents, both globally and nationally. The information about injuries at Finnish schools is not routinely collected. The aim of this study is to present a web-based tool to collect unintentional and injuries at school environment and to analyze the injuries at collected at three Finnish comprehensive schools. The Green-Cross application was co-designed with the end-users and the aim was to design a tool for safety promotion, problem solving, practical actions and risk management.</p>

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<p>In general the risks reported with the Green Cross application were injuries, incidents, dangers and violence. In the sample 42 % of the reported cases indicated unpredictable human behavior or acting against norms or regulations. Findings presented here indicate that injuries in the school can be reported with the help of application that contains visualized elements for quick reporting, yet some more design should be considered for research purposes, like possibility to choose gender or age of the persons involved. Because the injuries in schools are assumed to remain under-reported and to engage and motivate teachers for reporting more actively, more gamification characteristics could be added to the application such as personal scoring or pictures.</p>