Epidemiological Risk Analysis of Home Injuries in Italy (1999–2006)

Abstract

Home injuries are an important public health issue in both developed and developing countries. This study focused on the Italian epidemiological framework between 1999 and 2006, using a nation-representative sample provided by the National Institute of Statistics. Every year, about 3,000,000 Italian residents reported at least one home injury, with an overall annual rate of 5.2/100 (95% CI 5.1–5.4); 3.2/100 (3.0–3.4) for males and 7.2/100 (6.9–7.4) for females. Poisson regression models were used for different age-specific populations (children, young/adults and older people), to evaluate the effects of socio-demographic, health/income satisfaction and housing variables. For children, non-applicable variables (including smoking and health satisfaction) were taken as those of the head of family, while housework time was taken the family mean time. Evidence of decreasing time trend in risk of home injury was found only among young/adults (p < 0.01). The following were risk factors: female gender (adjusted relative risk—RR 2.0 for older people and RR 1.9 for young/adults, p < 0.01); one additional hour of work at home (RR 1.009, p < 0.01 for young/adults and RR 1.016, p = 0.01 for children); smoking (RR 1.3, p < 0.01 for young/adults and p = 0.02 for children); health dissatisfaction (RR 1.3, p = 0.05 for children, RR 1.6 for young/adults and RR 1.7 for older people, p < 0.01); income dissatisfaction (RR 1.2, p < 0.01 for young/adults ); living alone (RR 1.5, p < 0.01 for young/adults and RR 1.2, p < 0.02 for the older people); having a garden (RR 1.1, p < 0.01 for young/adults ). Awareness of the need for safety at home could be boosted by information campaigns on the risk, and its social cost could be reduced by specific prevention schemes. Developing tools for assessing the risk at home and for removing the main hazards would be useful for both informative and prevention interventions.

A web-based prospective cohort study of home, leisure, school and sports injuries in France: a descriptive analysis

“…In contrast to other studies that showed that socially disadvantaged people have a higher risk of severe injuries and injuries requiring hospitalization (Ferrante et al, 2014 ; Cubbin & Smith, 2002 ), our study showed higher HLI SIRs among household members with higher incomes. This may be related to the grouping of home injuries with sports and leisure injuries in French studies, including ours.…”

Effects of home environmental, behavioural and domestic activities on the risk of home injuries in French adults: Results from a prospective study

“…A secondary result of this study, consistent with previous literature (Camilloni et al, 2011; Ferrante et al, 2014) was an increased risk of HI (86% higher) for people aged over-50s living alone. This higher risk may however be related with the involvement of older people in DIY.…”

“…The certainty of the evidence is moderate to high for reducing hazards at home and moderate for the efficacy of hazard modification programs (WHO, 2018). 4 According to these studies, some confirmed home hazards related to injury risk are the absence of railings on stairways (Lord et al, 2006), the height of rails and the spaces between the stair rails (Keskinoglu et al, 2008), insufficient lighting (Camilloni et al, 2011;Farchi et al, 2006;Gillespie et al, 2003), deteriorated stairs (Gielen et al, 2015), slippery or uneven floors (Lord et al, 2006) (such as vinyl or linoleum (Talbot et al, 2005)), steps or uneven surfaces (Talbot et al, 2005), loose rugs or carpets (Gillespie et al, 2003;Lord et al, 2006), loose electrical wires on the bedroom floor {Healey1994}, unstable furniture and obstructed walkways (Gillespie et al, 2003;Lord et al, 2006), lack of window guards at the second level or higher (Keall et al, 2011), tap water that is too hot (Gielen et al, 2015), lack of working smoke alarms (Gielen et al, 2015;Keall et al, 2011), electrical hazards and sources of carbon monoxide (CO) (Gielen et al, 2015), having a garden (Ferrante et al, 2014) and having a balcony (Ferrante et al, 2014).…”

Who gets injured at home? Evidence from older people in France

“…Our analysis focused on the senior population because among the people affected by HLIs, seniors seem to be the most vulnerable group. For instance, in Italy, the rate of HLIs was 8.1% for people over 65 years compared to 5.2% for the general population for the period 1999−2006 (Ferrante et al., 2014). In the United States in 1998, the rate of nonfatal HLIs for people over 65 years old was almost twice the rate estimated for children (Runyan et al., 2005).…”