Between august 1986 and the beginning of august 1987, over 24000 households, containing nearly 67000 persons, were surveyed by telephone about any recent accidents resulting in injury. Accidents were classified according to: whether they occurred as a result of traffic accidents, sport accidents, at home, or at work, thus covering all activities. Expressed on an annual basis, about one in five of the dutch population had some sort of accident resulting in injury requiring medical treatment. By far the largest categories of injuries were home (1 in 10) and sport accidents, (1 in 12). Approximately 1 in 50 had had a medically treated occupational accident and approximately 1 in 60 a road accident resulting in medically treated injury. Accidents were responsible for about 3.5% of all hospital admissions and for about 5.6% of all visits to a doctor. Approximately 2% of the victims had to be hospitalized and a further 35% were treated as outpatients. About 50% had to see a doctor, and the other 13% received first aid or some other treatment, mainly at the site of the accident. Road accidents resulted in by far the highest proportion of hospital admissions, the highest proportion of out-patients, and by far the highest proportion of multi-trauma. Other data were gathered on injury type and injury location and the circumstances of the accident. (Author/publisher)
Abstract