Association between the number of home injury hazards and home injury

Abstract

Although the home is a major setting for injury morbidity and mortality, there are few proven effective interventions for reducing home injury risk. To inform future research or interventions, this study measures associations between home injury hazards and home injury from a sample of New Zealand households. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between injury hazards identified by a building inspection and injuries requiring medical or associated services that occurred to household members prior to the inspection. There was an estimated increase of 22% in the odds of injury occurrence associated with each additional injury hazard found in the home (with 95% CI: 6-41%). This research suggests that addressing injury hazards in the home may be effective in reducing home injury. There are a number of potentially confounding factors that may affect relationships found between the existence of home hazards and injury occurrence. These need to be taken into account when future evaluations are planned. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.