The effects of a community-based injury prevention study in Falunr Sweden - Outpatient and hospital-based injury records
Titel:
The effects of a community-based injury prevention study in Falunr Sweden - Outpatient and hospital-based injury records
Auteur:
Bjerre, Bo Sandberg, Britt-Marie
Verschenen in:
International journal on injury control and safety promotion
Paginering:
Jaargang 5 (1998) nr. 3 pagina's 129-138
Jaar:
1998-09-01
Inhoud:
In order to reduce the number of non-intentional injuries in Falun, the Safe Community concept was put into practice. The program was initiated in 1989 and built up gradually. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the effects of the prevention efforts by studying the changes in injury rates over a five-year period. The population of Falun (55,000) was compared with that of bordering municipalities, the entire county of Dalarna and Sweden as a whole. The outcome evaluation was based on information from two independent registers. As far as outpatient injuries were concerned, a local surveillance system was implemented as part of the regular clinical work. Hospital discharge registers were also studied to obtain information as to the number of injured individuals, as well as the number of patients hospitalized with a diagnosis of injury. After five years, a decrease of 23.8% in outpatient injuries was found in Falun while the decrease was significantly less (8.6%) in the bordering municipalities. Injuries leading to hospital admissions showed an average annual decrease of 7.2% in Falun from 1989 to 1994. In the control area, the corresponding annual decrease was 1.5%. Femoral fractures showed an average annual decrease of 6.3% in Falun while they remained basically unchanged in the control area. However, the data retrieved from the national register (excluding double counting), revealed a somewhat different picture. While the incidence rates remained at about the same level in Falun, there was a 2% average annual increase of injured individuals in the country as a whole. It was nevertheless concluded that the injury rates, for both outpatients and inpatients, had been affected gradually during the five years when the Safe Community program was in effect. The annual decrease supports the thesis that this effect was due to the program, which was built up gradually. Other possible explanations, e.g. registration effects, changed admission policy and random fluctuations, are discussed but none of them seem reasonable.
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