[Occupational accidents in the light of the records of the Institute of Social Insurance].

The records of the Social Insurance Institute Department in Poznań have been used as the study material. The area of the study covered the whole province of Poznań. The study included only people employed in the State-controlled economy. Applied in the study have been certificate records of the Social Insurance Institution related to individuals applying for financial benefits and entitled to them as victims of accidents at work (health damage, disability) in 1985. The records of 3119 workers (2380 men and 739 women) were analysed. Accidents at work were found to be 2.8 times more frequent among workmen, as compared to people carrying on other than physical work. The accident rate was higher among men than among women; the difference was more distinctive in physical workers (2.7:1) than in those performing other types of work (1.3:1). 37.5% of all accidents affected the workers who had been accident victims before. A clear weekly rhythm of accidents was observed: most of them happened on Wednesday. 11 o'clock was noted as the most fatal time. Most frequent accidents were: all kinds of falls (28.8%), hand injuries (34.5%), occurring mostly during transportation or when operating a machine. In the majority of cases the accidents resulted in slight health damages; in 23.0% of victims no essential health damages were found, they were the so-called zero damages. Finger injuries occur most frequently in physical workers, whereas injuries of ankle-joints, feet and head--in those performing other types of work.