INJURIES IN THE NETHERLANDS - A SURVEY

As a repeat of a survey carried out in 1986-1987, a telephone survey w as conducted, More than 25,000 households, comprising over 67,000 pers ons, were questioned about any recent traffic, home and leisure, sport s and occupational injuries. Expressed as a national number, a total o f approximately three million accident victims required professional m edical treatment in a 12 month period in 1992 and 1993. By far the lar gest categories of injuries were home and leisure injuries and sports injuries (1.6 million and 1.1 million respectively), followed by traff ic injuries (340,000) and occupational injuries (230,000), Approximate ly 59,000 victims were admitted to hospital, 830,000 were treated in a n accident and emergency department/out-patient clinic and 2 million v isited a general practitioner, Based on the proportion of hospital adm issions and fractures, traffic injuries are considered the most severe type of accident. Compared with the results of 1986-1987, the total n umber of accident victims (except occupational injuries) increased by 11%. For traffic injuries this increase was 30% and for home and leisu re injuries 16%, There was no significant change for sports injuries. In spite of preventive measures, the accident problem in The Netherlan ds is not decreasing. This means that preventive efforts should at lea st be maintained at the present level.