[Domestic accidents: a study on children attending the emergency department of the city of Padua]. / Infortuni domestici: uno studio sui bambini presentatisi nel pronto soccorso di Padova.

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.

[Compensated cases for asbestosis. A geographical analysis by Italian provinces]. / Casi indennizzati di asbestosi. Un'analisi geografica per le province italiane.

During 1995-1999 among cases compensated by Italian National Institute for Insurance of Occupational Accidents (INAIL), asbestosis was classified as the second occupational disease after hypoacusia with the 7% of total cases. The present study describes the geographical distribution of 1.483 cases in men, notified to INAIL (and subsequently confirmed) during 1984-1992. Age-standardised incidence rates were calculated for the 93 Italian provinces. In addition, standardised incidence ratio (SIR) were computed, comparing the number of observed cases to the number of expected cases on the basis of age specific rates in the large geographical Italian areas (Northeast, Northwest, Centre and South and islands). Empirical Bayes estimates applying the Poisson-Gamma model were also estimated. The geographical distribution of standardised incidence ratios revealed a high excess risk for the province of Gorizia, Livorno, Massa Carrara, La Spezia, Trieste, Alessandria, Caltanissetta and a lower, but still significant, excess risk for the province of Siracusa, Ancona, Napoli, Genova, Reggio Emilia, Brindisi, Bergamo, Arezzo, Taranto, Pavia, Messina, Lecco and Varese. This study suggests the possibility to use the insurance files on asbestosis in order to estimate risks in Italy and to compare geographical clusters. Identification of provinces with significant excess number of compensated cases for asbestosis underscore the need for more detailed surveys aimed to detect conditions correlated with asbestos exposure and identifying persisting environmental pollution. Detailed enquiries are needed in particular in those provinces where excesses cannot be explained by current knowledge on circumstances of the presence of asbestos in the workplace.