Epidemiologic patterns of injuries treated at the emergency department of a Swedish medical center.

BACKGROUND: The injury spectrum published in the literature has mainly been presented for a certain age group, as elderly or for a certain type of injury, as fracture and often restricted to in-hospital care cases. Our objective was to give an overview of the major types of injuries for all age groups and trends in the adult population.

METHODS: We analyzed 68,159 adult injury events, which occurred between 1999 and 2008 and was treated at the Emergency Department of Umea University Hospital. All these injuries are registered in a database. The injuries were analyzed depending on frequency, type of injury, and activity at the time of injury. Incidence rates were calculated using population data from Statistics Sweden.

RESULTS: Injury event incidence varied between 614 (2004) and 669 (2007) per 10,000 persons. The most common injury was a fracture, although contusions and wounds were also frequent. Fractures were responsible for almost three quarters of hospital days related to injury. The risk for fractures increased with age, as did contusions and concussions, whereas sprains decreased with age. Fracture incidence increased among the 50- to 59-year age group for both women and men. Fall-related injuries increased significantly for middle-aged adults. Sports-related and work injuries decreased, while injuries occurring during leisure time increased the most.

CONCLUSION: A fracture is the most frequent type of injury for adults and accounts for the largest proportion of the trauma care burden. Contusions are also common and responsible for a significant proportion of the in-hospital days. Injuries caused by a fall increased among middle-age adults imply a need for an extension of fall prevention programs.