Because of the lack of accurate data on injury-producing accidents in The Netherlands a telephone survey was conducted from August 1992 until July 1993. This was the first repeat of a comparable survey carried out in 1986/1987. More than 25.000 households containing over 67.000 persons, were questioned about any recent traffic, home and leisure, sports and occupational injury. Expressed in national numbers, of the circa 15 million inhabitants of The Netherlands, a total of circa 3 million accident victims needed professional medical treatment. By far the largest categories were home and leisure and sports injuries (1.6 million and 1.1 million), followed by traffic injuries (340.000) and occupational injuries and occupational injuries (230.000). The average age of the professionally treated victims was 30 years. There were slightly more men than women. The report gives details about the differences and similarities of victim and injury characteristics between the four accident categories: traffic and home and leisure injuries show many similarities, sports and occupational injuries have many different characteristics. Traffic injuries are considered the most severe type of accident. (A)
Abstract