Design and construction of an Unintentional Injury Risk Index (UIRI) to measure frequency and severity of accidental injuries in Europe.

In today's Risk Society, accidental injuries are considered an important public health problem. To design coherent programmes aimed at reducing risk, it is necessary to measure the magnitude of this phenomenon with its changing meaning -from random misfortune to foreseeable and preventable risk. To calculate the total volume of accidental injuries in Europe, the empirical aim of this article, we have designed an adequate measurement instrument: the Unintentional Injury Risk Index (UIRI) counts both the probability (incidence) and the consequences (severity) of injuries. The index calculated for EU countries in 2009 revealed that accidents caused injuries and suffering equivalent to 96.4 deaths per 100,000 population. Based on the index, other specific indices can be calculated, such as personal proneness, country risk or site hazard indices, useful for deepening knowledge on the risk factors for unintentional injuries.