Bullying and injury profile of female intermediate and bachelor programme students--perspective from Islamabad.

problem and entails use of power and aggression; either physical, verbal, and/or psychological aggressive behaviour that is directed towards a student by his/her peers.1,2 Bullying victimization has been associated with depression, and suicidal ideation.1-3 There are no studies on bullying among college students in Pakistan. A crosssectional survey with convenience sampling was conducted among female college students of intermediate and bachelors programmes in Islamabad to study bullying behaviour, and its association with injuries, using a pre-tested questionnaire from March-June 2011. Three female lecturers in three colleges approached students enrolled in classes 11-12, and bachelor programmes, and after obtaining verbal consent and ensuring complete confidentiality, distributed the questionnaires and collected the completed ones. Definitions of bullying and injury, and questions in this questionnaire were taken from the global school-based student health survey of Indonesia, conducted by CDC.4 Data were analyzed using R-v2.14. Cumulatively 760 students participated in the study; table 1 shows the responses to injury and bullying questions disaggregated by two class groups of 11-12 and BA/B.Sc. In the past twelve months 120 (50.4%) and 222 (42.5%) students of classes 11-12 and BA/B.Sc respectively, reported having sustained serious injury one or more times, and this was the only statistically significant association found between the two groups. Two most common reasons for the reported injuries were while doing housework or cooking and playing or training for sports. Cumulatively, 325 (42.8%) students reported being bullied on one or more days in the past thirty days, 211 (27.8%) students reported having bullied someone in the past thirty days, 342 (45%) reported having sustained one or more serious injuries in the past twelve months, and 307 (40.4%) reported having felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that they stopped doing their usual activities in the past twelve months. Among