Home Accident Statistics in Scotland
In the UK every year, almost 5,000 people die in home accidents and 2.7million visit their local accident and emergency departments seeking help.
Similar to the rest of the UK, Scotland has a challenge to reduce the number of people killed and injured in the place we all believe should be safe - our own homes. People who spend more of their time at home suffer proportionally more accidental injuries, i.e. the very young and older people.
In 2009, 236 people died following an injury sustained in the home. This information is collated by the Information Services Division (ISD) of NHS National Services Scotland. The ISD’s purpose is to deliver effective national and specialist intelligence services to improve the health and well being of people in Scotland. A range of tables is available on the ISD website where you can view in-depth information relating to topics such as age groups, and health board areas. See /www.isdscotland.org/.
The graph below shows a dramatic decrease over the last twenty years: in 1980 there were over three times as many deaths.
Scotland: Home accident deaths 1985 - 2009 (ISD 2010).
The ISD also provides detailed information on the numbers of people who are injured so severely that they needed to be admitted to hospital. In 2009-2010, this amounted to more than 16,000 people.
Scotland: Hospital admissions due to a home accident 2000 - 2010 (ISD 2010).
A set of tables has also been produced by the ISD (XLS 92kb) for RoSPA in Scotland which shows the number of children under the age of five and the number of people aged 65 and over who have been admitted to hospital over the last five years recorded by local authority area. This information is supported by a further table which gives similar information but includes rates per hundred thousand population.
Up-to-date information on those who visit accident and emergency departments has not been available across the UK since 2002 (following the cessation of the Home Accident Surveillance System). However, progress is being made in Scotland as the ISD has been tasked by the Scottish Government to improve the data available and is currently engaged with local health boards to establish what information it will be feasible to collect.
Based on previous figures and trends, RoSPA in Scotland estimates that every day around 1,000 people are seeking some kind of medical attention following an accidental injury received at home.
Further detailed information on home accidents in Scotland has been produced by the practitioners group Home Safety Scotland and is available on the Home Safety Scotland website.
The benefits of taking preventative measures are clear and quantifiable in terms of both health and economic costs, resulting in:
- The potential to save lives
- Improved quality of life for all
- Reductions in the cost of acute care
- Reductions in the cost of continued community support required after hospital discharge.
Share this page: