Abstract
Background and Objective: There are currently no reliable estimates of the prevalence of self-injury among adolescent population. The aim of this study is to estimate the prevalence of self-injury among a sample of 10 grade male students in Tabriz city and to evaluate the associated factors such as demographic and risk taking behaviors.
Material and Methods: Of all grade-10 male students in Tabriz, 1772 were randomly sampled. A self- administered questionnaire was used to collect demographic data, self-injury, substance abuse, general risk taking behavior and friends smoking. The influence of different factors on self-injury was evaluated with a logistic regression model.
Results: Among 1772 students 76 (4.3 %, CI 95%: 3.4-5.3) had self- injury. Eight (10.5%) of them were carving, 4 (5.3%) burning, 9(11.8%) hitting, 27(35.5%) cutting, 7(9.2%) tattooing, 5(6.6%) skin picking and 17(22.4%) bruising. The results indicate that, ever alcohol use (OR= 1.52), having smoker friend (OR= 2.54) and higher smoking stage (OR= 1.85) were factors associated with student's self-injury.
Conclusion: This study has shown low prevalence of self-injury and determined some of its risk factors among students. More studies about adolescent population are necessary to approve the observed results of this study and thus allow for a certain generalization of the observations.