Injuries: population surveys

Adults

Population based information on injury trends and variation among adults, by age and gender, is available from the Scottish Health Survey (SHeS). Trend information on injuries in Scotland is also available from the Health Education Population Survey from 1996 to 2004.

Injury information in population surveys is self reported and defined as any accident where advice was sought from a doctor, nurse or other health professional, or which caused time to be taken off work. Participants in the 2009 SHeS were asked to recall any accidents they had had in the 12 months prior to the interview which fitted this definition. Accident rates, however, are based only on those accidents about which advice was sought from a doctor or which required a visit to hospital.

• Self-reported injury rates, as reported by SHeS, have decreased since 1995 among men and women aged 16-64 years,: for men, from 24 per 100 in 1995 to 13 per 100 in 2009 and for women, from 15 per 100 in 1995 to 11 per 100 in 2009 (Chart 1 (view chart)
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• In 2009, the highest accident rates in men and women were in the youngest (16-24 years) and oldest age groups (75 years and over) (Chart 2 (view chart)
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• The decrease in the accident rate among men since 1995 has been driven by the drop in accident rate amongst men age 16-35 (Scottish Health Survey 2009).

Children

Findings from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children  report (2010) (5.2MB) show that:

• approximately half of young people (aged 11, 13 and 15 years) suffered at least one medically treated injury in the past 12 months (53% of boys and 42% of girls)
• There has been no change in the prevalence of injuries reported by young people between 2002 and 20010