[The elderly and street safety: analysis of geographical differences in the province of Modena].
The progressive ageing of the population and the increasing importance of road traffic in our society renders the relationships between elderly people and road traffic an increasingly important problem. In the province of Modena elderly people are not equally distributed over the area, in fact they are concentrated mainly in small towns situated in hill/mountain areas. This study aims to verify the risk conditions for elderly people in relation to road accidents in different areas in the province of Modena. The time-series analyses of road accidents involving elderly people, from 1991 to 1996, in the province of Modena were carried out on 2,291 cases out of 16,267 total accidents. The results of the analysis showed statistically significant differences for the ratio of fatalities according to the geographical area, divided into low plain, urban and hill/mountain areas (p = 0.015 urban and hill/mountain areas). No statistically significant differences were obtained for the division into small, medium and big towns, however such analysis indicated an increased risk for elderly people living in small towns, regardless of the means of transport involved in the accident (p = 0.052). The relationship between old people and road traffic seems to be worse in the small towns situated in hill/mountain areas, where there is a higher number of elderly people, and where the facilities probably have not adapted themselves to the social-cultural changes that take place.
Ranzi
A
A
ARPA Emilia-Romagna, Centro per la prevenzione dei danni ambientali e sanitari da traffico. a.ranzi@tin.it
Danielli
G
G
Gaudio
D
D
Lauriola
P
P
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D012449:Safety