Injury death rates 'vary by area'

Alcohol accounts for more than 167,000 hospital admissions due to injury, a report claims
26 March 2012

There are large variations across England in the number of people who die from injuries such as falls, road accidents and poisoning, research has suggested.

Almost 11,000 people die each year from accidental injuries, including more than 2,000 from land transport accidents (mostly road, rail and cycling) and nearly 3,300 from falls. But the rates at which people are killed or admitted to hospital differs according to where they live.

The findings were released by the South West Public Health Observatory (SWPHO) on behalf of Public Health Observatories in England. The local authority with the highest rate of accidental deaths was Melton in Leicestershire, with a rate of 29 deaths per 100,000 people, the figures showed.

This compared with Runnymede in Surrey, which had the lowest rate at 5.5 deaths per 100,000 people. Melton also had the highest rate of years of life lost per year, at 95.6 per 10,000 people compared with just 10 per 10,000 in Surrey Heath, Surrey.

Data on emergency hospital admissions for accidental injury also differed in 2010/11, the report showed.

Hospital admission rates for land transport accidents varied from just 48.8 admissions per 100,000 people in Kingston upon Thames to 189.8 per 100,000 in Boston, Lincolnshire. Meanwhile, falls admission rates among the over-65s varied from 4,844.4 per 100,000 in Waltham Forest, London, to 1,259.4 in Eden, Cumbria.

Poisoning accounted for more than 123,200 admissions overall, ranging from 539 per 100,000 in Middlesbrough to 67.8 per 100,000 in Wokingham, Berkshire. Falls from height, or from one level to another, accounted for more than 51,500 admissions in total. This rate varied from 165.9 in Halton in Cheshire to 42.9 per 100,000 in East Hertfordshire.

Meanwhile, alcohol is thought to have accounted for more than 167,000 admissions due to injury, varying from 617.9 per 100,000 in Lincoln to 95.9 per 100,000 in Wokingham.

SWPHO director Dr Julia Verne said most of the deaths for accidental injury were preventable "making injuries a serious public health concern".

She added: "Injuries don't often make the headlines and are consequently something of a 'hidden' public health issue. This needs to change. We know that they disproportionately affect the young, the old and the least well off."

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