[The incidence and patterns of unintentional injuries in daily life in Korea: a nationwide study].
OBJECTIVE
This study was conducted to estimate the cumulative incidence rate (CIR) of unintentional injuries in Korean daily life and to describe the pattern of unintentional injuries.


METHODS
The study population was the people who used the National Health Insurance because of injuries (ICD code: S00-T98) during 2006. The stratified sample according to gender, age and the severity of injury (NISS, New Injury Severity Score) was randomly selected. The questions on the questionnaire were developed as a reference for an international classification tool (ICECI, International Classification of External Causes of Injury). The questions included the locations of injury, the mechanisms of injury and the results of injury. Moreover, we used age, gender, region and income variables for analysis.


RESULTS
The CIR of unintentional injuries that occurred in daily life for 1 year per 100,000 persons was 17,606, and the CIR of severe injuries was 286. Many injuries were occurred at home (29.6%), public places (19.0%), school (13.7%) and near home (12.0%). The major mechanisms of injuries were slipping (48.8%), contact (14.0%), physical over-exertion (13.8%), and fall (6.6%). Infants and old aged people were vulnerable to injuries, and those who lived rural area and who were in a low income level were vulnerable too.


CONCLUSIONS
We signified the risk groups and risk settings of unintentional injuries in Korean daily life. These results could contribute to establishing strategies for injury prevention and implementing these strategies.
Park
Kunhee
K
Seoul National University, College of Medicine, Department of Health Policy and Management.
Eun
Sang Jun
SJ
Lee
Eun-Jung
EJ
Lee
Chae-Eun
CE
Park
Doo Yong
DY
Han
Kyounghun
K
Kim
Yoon
Y
Lee
Jin-Seok
JS
D000059:Accidents / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology*