Life stress and uncertainty stress: which is more associated with unintentional injury?

Injury is a serious public health problem with significant social and economic costs. Prior studies reported an association between mental stress and unintentional injury. However, no comparable studies have examined uncertainty stress, along with other types of stress, and their relative impact upon unintentional injury. The purpose of this study was to assess the salience of uncertainty stress as a predictor. Participants were 11,954 students, who were identified through a multistage sampling process that incorporated 50 universities. Stress and unintentional injury status were obtained by self-report. Both unadjusted and adjusted methods were considered in the analyses. Based on a retrospective 12-month reporting window, 12.6% of the respondents had experienced traffic injury, 21.4% home injury, 15.2% work-related injury, and 23.1% sports injury. The multivariable logistic regression model found that uncertainty stress was associated with all categories of unintentional injury, while life stress only was related to traffic injury. These findings underscore the importance of minimizing uncertainty stress and can inform pertinent policies and reinforce the need for uncertainty stress management in China.