[Domestic accidents: a study on children attending the emergency department of the city of Padua].

Objective: This study analyzes the causes of domestic accidents in children (age <15) living in the Local Social Sanitary Unit of Padua (Ulss). ME Italy, with regard to the circumstances of the accident and the socioeconomic level of the family.

Method: the subjects were recruited in the Emergency Department of the local hospital between January 15 and March 15, 2004 following an accident at home (n=392). Each case was contacted on that occasion, and a telephone interview was made to one of the parents at a later stage. The latter was accepted by 74% cases.

Results: The bimonthly incidence of domestic accidents in the Ulss of Padua was 7.74% per hundred. The incidence was higher in males than in females and in pre-school than in school age. Only 5% children required hospitalisation. Falls are the most frequent type of accident (65%), one third of the events occurred in the living room, half of them occurred during free games.

Conclusion: The incidence of the Ulss of Padua is higher than the national incidence: the gap is limited to pre-school age for which the incidence of Padua, age-standardized on Italian population and extrapolated for three months, is 18.8% per hundred while tri-monthly national incidence is 11.7% per hundred. No differences in rates were noticed in school age (6.5% per hundred for Padua vs. 6.4% per hundred for Italy). Findings regarding the circumstances of injuries are consistent with other surveys carried out in Italy and elsewhere. No particular causing factor of accidents emerged. However, the avoidability of accidents attributable to the adult's behaviour is to be noticed.