Abstract
Home injuries are an important public health issue in both developed and developing countries. This study focused on the Italian epidemiological framework between 1999 and 2006, using a nation-representative sample provided by the National Institute of Statistics. Every year, about 3,000,000 Italian residents reported at least one home injury, with an overall annual rate of 5.2/100 (95% CI 5.1–5.4); 3.2/100 (3.0–3.4) for males and 7.2/100 (6.9–7.4) for females. Poisson regression models were used for different age-specific populations (children, young/adults and older people), to evaluate the effects of socio-demographic, health/income satisfaction and housing variables. For children, non-applicable variables (including smoking and health satisfaction) were taken as those of the head of family, while housework time was taken the family mean time. Evidence of decreasing time trend in risk of home injury was found only among young/adults (p < 0.01). The following were risk factors: female gender (adjusted relative risk—RR 2.0 for older people and RR 1.9 for young/adults, p < 0.01); one additional hour of work at home (RR 1.009, p < 0.01 for young/adults and RR 1.016, p = 0.01 for children); smoking (RR 1.3, p < 0.01 for young/adults and p = 0.02 for children); health dissatisfaction (RR 1.3, p = 0.05 for children, RR 1.6 for young/adults and RR 1.7 for older people, p < 0.01); income dissatisfaction (RR 1.2, p < 0.01 for young/adults ); living alone (RR 1.5, p < 0.01 for young/adults and RR 1.2, p < 0.02 for the older people); having a garden (RR 1.1, p < 0.01 for young/adults ). Awareness of the need for safety at home could be boosted by information campaigns on the risk, and its social cost could be reduced by specific prevention schemes. Developing tools for assessing the risk at home and for removing the main hazards would be useful for both informative and prevention interventions.
Highlights
Home injuries are a significant public health problem in both developed and developing countries.In the USA during the 1997–2007 period most injuries occurred at home and more than 40% of reported medically treated injuries occurred in and around the home [1,2]
Children aged 0–14 years and the older people aged over 70 spend a lot of time at home, so they are more exposed to the risks of home injury
The survey was based on face-to-face interviews and a self-administrated questionnaire; when needed children were supported by guardians, information regarding unavailable persons were provided by a relative
Summary
Home injuries are a significant public health problem in both developed and developing countries.In the USA during the 1997–2007 period most injuries occurred at home and more than 40% of reported medically treated injuries occurred in and around the home [1,2]. Between 2003–2005, the overall annual rate of fatal home and leisure accidents in the 27 European Union Member States was 22 per 100,000 inhabitants. Children aged 0–14 years and the older people aged over 70 spend a lot of time at home, so they are more exposed to the risks of home injury. Their injuries need the most specialized health care and, in countries with a welfare and public health system (such as Italy), this implies high social costs
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