Accidents in the school environment in Milan, a five year survey.

Data regarding 11,541 cases of school accidents (from kindergarten to senior high school) that required hospital attention for treatment were examined. The information was obtained from the records of the "School Medicine Service of the City of Milan", and covered five school years (from 1980-81 to 1984-85). The surveyed population included over 160,000 subjects for each year. After computer processing, data regarding type of school, year, age of the victim, place of the accident and type of lesions were obtained. The frequency of accidents was highest (about 2%) among kindergarten pupils, while in senior high school the lowest frequency (less than 1%) was accompanied by the greatest percentage of hospitalizations (about 6%). From our results it appears that most accidents occur in school gyms (around 50%), and that the percentage of sprains and fractures is also highest in this area. School gyms can therefore be considered as a primary target for any prevention activity.