Abstract

Truancy has well-documented short-term and long-term consequences, but there are few studies that look at its impact on injury-related mortality. This study evaluated the rate of injury-related mortality for 2006–2010 among youth (11–17 years old) with a history of severe truancy compared with youth without such history. There were 168 injury-related deaths (51 homicide, 29 suicide and 88 unintentional injury deaths) among youth in Dallas County. Fifteen of these deaths were among youth with a history of severe truancy. Injury-related mortality was more than five times higher among youth with history of severe truancy compared with youth without such history. Youth with a history of severe truancy have an increased risk of injury-related death. Further research may be warranted to evaluate the part of less severe levels of truancy on mortality and to study the effectiveness of truancy intervention programmes on the risk of death from injuries.