Injury prevention and safety promotion

Abstract

Injuries (outcomes of accidents, assaults, and intentional self-harm) place heavy burdens on societies worldwide in terms of human suffering, health expenses, and compensation costs. This burden is predicted to increase. Across the European countries, there is a great variation in injury mortality rates, from less than 25 per 100,000 in the western part to more than 180 in the eastern part. In EU-27, each year more than 230,000 persons will be killed, about 1 million will be permanently impaired, about 6 million will be admitted to hospitals, and about 34 million will be treated as outpatients. Dangers are the origins of accidents and injuries. To avoid them, dangers should be removed or modified/diminished, or people should be trained to master them. Injury surveillance is a tool for obtaining knowledge of the epidemiology of the injuries. A two-step surveillance system is recommended. The first step should be the collection of data: (1) for estimation of injury incidence rates and (2) for establishing trends. The second step should be the collection of more detailed data for understanding factors contributing to the accidents and injuries. Accident prevention measures can be divided into three main categories: modification of (1) attitudes, (2) behaviours, and (3) structural conditions. A fourth category occurs when measures from two or all three categories are utilized (orchestration). It is shown through literature studies that interventions from categories 3 and 4 have more significant positive results than interventions from category 1 and 2. Many experiences on best practices and evidence-based strategies on prevention of accidental injuries are referred to, and divided into traffic, occupational, home, sports, child, and elderly accidents and injuries.