[Road and home-accident injuries of infants and adolescents in the Lazio region. Results of an integrated surveillance system].

OBJECTIVE road traffic and home accidents are one of the leading causes of death for infants and adolescents between 0-18 years of age. This study aimed to describe the injuries of children in the Lazio Region, in the year 2000. DESIGN retrospective cohort study. SETTING road traffic and home accident injury visits to all Emergency Departments (ED) in the Lazio region during 2000, Hospital discharges in the region during 2000-2001, integrated through deterministic linkage strategy PARTICIPANTS all children aged 0-18 who visited one of the ED for home or road traffic injuries. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES we computed ED visits and hospitalisation rates and stratified them by sex, age and place of residence. Cases were classified by body region and type of lesion. IRR and 95% confidence intervals have been estimated using Poisson Regression. RESULTS the rate of home accident visits was particularly high among children aged 1-5 years (55.2/1000), while the highest rate for road traffic injuries was in 14-18 year old children (53.8/1000). Girls had a lower hospitalisation rate than boys. Higher hospitalisation rates were found for children living outside of Rome. The body region most frequently injured in road traffic accidents was the lower extremities (28.4%), while most frequently injured in home accidents was the head and neck (34.8%). CONCLUSION this study shows how integrating different systems of surveillance can provide a more complete picture of injuries from road and home accidents, that is difficult to obtain using other sources. The youngest children are at high risk of home accidents while teen-agers are at risk for road traffic injuries.