Incidenti mortali domestici in Toscana negli anni 2001-2002

In the last years in Italy deaths due to accidents were more than 26.000/year. One of the most frequent places in which they occurred was at home, with more than 8.000 deaths/year. Due to the lack of studies related to this field, in Tuscany a specific study of fatal home accidents has been done. The cases studied, occurred in Tuscany in 2001-2002, have been extracted from the electronic database of the Regional Mortality Registry of Tuscany. Information about the modality of the accidents was collected by administering a questionnaire to the closest available relative of the victim. A total of 284 cases were studied, the majority of whom were female, over 75 years of age, with low educational level, pensioners, often with more than three pathologies. The accidents happened mostly in the bedroom or on the stairs due to accidental falls. The dynamics of fatal accidents showed great differences if compared to the nonfatal accidents. This suggests the need of different approaches for fatal injury surveillance and for the implementing of preventive strategies.