Accidents/injuries of children in surgical admissions at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia: a psycho-social perspective.

200 children (0-14 years) with an accident/injury at the surgical admission ward of the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka were investigated by interviewing children and parents/relatives on especially psycho-social and environmental factors of the accidents. As a result, four major potential causes could be identified: (1) Lack of supervision by parent or teacher; (2) Environmental hazards; (3) Attention seeking and (4) Cultural conflict or lower socio-economic class. On this basis various preventive measures are proposed, on the lines of improving on psycho-social stressors and controlling environmental agents, taking a developmental perspective of the child into account.