[Injuries treated in primary care in the Community of Madrid: analyses of electronic medical records].

OBJECTIVE

To describe the incidence of injuries treated in primary care by type of injury, age groups, and sex in the publicly-funded health system of the region of Madrid in Spain.

METHODS

A descriptive cross sectional study was performed of injury episodes registered in the primary care electronic medical records of the health system of Madrid in 2011. We calculated the global incidence of injuries, injury-specific rates for fractures, sprains, wounds, burns, foreign body injuries, poisoning and bruises, and their rate ratios with 95% confidence intervals, all of which were stratified by sex and age groups.

RESULTS

In 2011 there were 707,800 injury episodes (3.5% of all episodes treated in primary care). Most of the injuries occurred in women (54.0%) and in persons older than 34 years (58.0%). The most common injuries were wounds in men (35.3%) and bruises in women (30.6%). Overall, women had higher rates of injuries among the elderly and men had more injuries in the group younger than 15 years. By type of injury, the highest rates of fractures, burns and bruises were observed in the older population, foreign body injuries and wounds in children, sprains in youth, and poisonings in extreme ages.

CONCLUSIONS

The special vulnerability of boys younger than 5 years and elderly women suggests that intervention strategies should be targeted to the specific needs of these groups.