Parent’s and children’s judgements about their outdoor environment in relation to children’s injuries

Objective: to explore views of parents and childrens on safety and danger of outdoor environment, and implications for outdoor activities after school. methods: the cross-sectional study was carried out in 2009-2010 and comprised 952 students between 7 and 9 years of age and 942 parents in tehran. two separate pre-designed questionnaires were used for children and parent. data was analysed using spss 16. results: the response rate of parents' and children's questionnaires regarding to socioeconomic deprivation were 830 (88.1%) from 942 and 932 (97.9%) from 952 respectively. overall, 224 (27.0%) parents believed that the outdoor places children usually play after school are 'not dangerous,' while 612 (65.7%) children believed that the streets they usually play on are safe. besides, 238 (28.7%) parents believed that the volume of traffic in their neighbourhood makes crossing roads difficult. there was no significant difference between the responses of less and more economically deprived parents relating to the presence of dangerous places near their home within less than 5-minute walk (66.8% vs. 62.5%), on general safety describing their areas as being 'not dangerous' (25.6% vs. 18.8%) and who did not regard the volume of traffic in local environment as making crossing the road difficult (55.3% vs. 53.4%). conclusion: many parents judged their outdoor places where their children played to be safe. if we assume that the physical environment of the more deprived areas is a more hazardous place than the less deprived areas, it suggests that the risk perception among the more deprived parents is poorer. if so, there is a need to be better informed about hazards in outdoor environment.