Paris (AFP)
emergency room visits for daily accidents have halved during confinement, but severe cases have sometimes increased as for falls at home or gardening-related injuries, according to a study published Wednesday by Public Health France.
Accidents in everyday life (which occur at home, during sports and leisure activities or at school), which therefore exclude road accidents, cause 5 million passages each year in France. emergencies, several hundred hospitalizations and 20,000 deaths.
To more precisely follow their evolution by type, age and injuries, very precise information is collected every year from around ten emergency services, out of around 600.
These data reveal a decrease of 55% (7,115 against 15,881) in the number of emergency visits due to home accidents during confinement (March 17 to May 11), imposed to curb the Covid-19 epidemic, compared to at the same period of 2019.
This decrease, which concerns all ages and both men and women, is not really surprising, the closure of schools and the ban on outdoor activities having in fact greatly reduced the accidents occurring in these circumstances. But it could also be linked to the fear of going to the emergency room because of the Covid-19.
Small exception, however, for the youngest (under 2 years) for whom the visits to the emergency room have increased for ingestion of foreign bodies, crushing / cutting, intoxication with chemicals or burns.
The number of serious cases observed in emergency rooms has also fallen, but to a lesser extent (-13%).
Severe cases that occurred at home, on the other hand, increased by 20% in children and 25% in those over 45, according to the study.
For children, this increase is particularly linked to falls, especially in 2 to 6 year olds.
"The modification of family lifestyles due to confinement (teleworking, continuous monitoring of several children at home, school at home, concern related to the disease, etc.) could modify the behavior of parents towards vis-a-vis the surveillance of their children ", noted the study of Public Health France.
Falls are also partly responsible for the increase in severe cases of domestic accidents among 65-84 year olds, according to the text which points to the limitation of mobility and social ties, as well as the psychological effects of the epidemic in accident risks for this age group.
Spending more time at home, the French have also embarked on domestic work, "with the use of tools or materials difficult to use or unknown to some, leading to more accidents". The study thus highlights an increase in serious cases of gardening accidents among 45-74 year olds.
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