Home Accidents among Children and Teenagers in a Swedish Rural Municipality

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate home accidents among children and teenagers with regard to incidence and severity and to compare the accident rate at home with that of nursing homes/day-care centres. All accidents in the age group 0–19 years, in a defined population, were, during a period of one year, registered at public care centres. Our findings show that home accidents contributed to 26% of all accidents in the age group 0–19 and about 10% of all health care consumption. The accident rate decreased with age. The severity was about the same as in other accidents. 10% were hospitalized. When time of exposure had been taken into consideration there was no difference as to incidence between the accident rate at home as compared with the rate in nursing homes/day-care centres. When comparing with studies in the past there seems to be a lower rate of home accidents which can be explained by secular changes and local preventive measures.