Nearly 20% of home and leisure accidents that required emergency use in the first half of this year occurred in seniors over 75, mostly at home (67%), according to official figures.

According to data from the EVITA − Epidemiology and Surveillance of Injuries and Accidents, coordinated by the National Institute of Health Doctor Ricardo Jorge (INSA, IP), between January and June this year 60,000 domestic accidents were recorded in the emergency room of health services, mostly in men (31,176).

The EVITA system collects and analyses data on home and leisure accidents that have led to the emergency of health units of the National Health Service (NHS).

Data from January to June this year, 14% of people who resorted to the emergency response for domestic leisure accidents, were between 10 and 14 years old and that the majority occurred in schools / public places. (60%).

One in ten cases of emergency use for domestic accidents was with elderly people between 65 and 74 years old, most (62%) at home, as well as one in ten adults between 20 and 34 years old (45 % at home).

According to figures recorded by EVITA, accidents involving children under the age of four who had to resort to emergencies occurred mostly at home (66%), but from that age on and up to 19 years the largest weight goes to accidents in schools. or in public places.

The age group 0-4 years was the one that least resorted (7%) to the urgencies of public services for domestic and leisure accidents, followed by people between 45 and 54 years (8%), mostly for accidents at home. (61%), outdoors (13%) or in transportation areas (10%).

Data from the EVITA system also indicate that more than half of accidents requiring emergency public health care occur at home (53% in women and 42% in men) and that workplace accidents account for only 2%. % (women) and 4% (men).

In the first half of the year, May was the month in which most domestic and leisure accidents (12,526) forced to resort to emergencies, while the month with the fewest records was June (9,189).

As for the distribution of the number of domestic and leisure accidents by day of the week, Tuesday was the day with the most emergency resources for this reason (9,157 cases). At the opposite end is Sunday, with 8,129 records.

The EVITA surveillance program, created in 2000, is part of the IDB Network (Injury DataBase), together with organizations from 25 countries of the European Association for Injury Prevention (EuroSafe).

The system is based on the registration of home and leisure accidents in a sample of NHS emergency services. These accidents are defined as all whose cause is not illness, car accident, work accident or violence.