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Objective: To compare data from an epidemiological survey on injuries with a survey conducted in hospitals on injuries in the same areas and to find out the differences and shortcomings of hospital data in describing the feature of injuries in an area., Methods: Comparing the causes and age distributions of injuries from the two surveys., Results: The first 4 leading causes of injuries from the population-based survey were mechanical injuries, falls, burns/scalds and traffic accidents while the first 4 leading causes of hospital-based survey were traffic accidents, assault, mechanical injuries and burns/scalds. The differences of the age distributions of these leading causes between the two surveys were significant except mechanical injuries., Conclusion: Differences were noticed between population-based survey and hospital-based survey. It should be cautions when using hospital data to describe the features of injuries in a certain area.

Objective: This study aimed to develop an estimate of the actuality and characteristics of poisoning suicide attempted patients in emergency department (ED) in China., Methods: We selected 25 hospital EDs in whole country as the investigation spots, and designed one special questionnaire to collect information from the poisoning suicide attempted patients from 1st July, 2001 to 30th June, 2002., Results: Results were based on 4060 cases hospitalized during the investigating period. In general frequency analysis, the ratio of male to female was 1:2.95. In all patients, 98.40% cases took poisons orally, and 93.57% cases occurred at home. The average age was 31.5 years old (min 8, max 93). The leading occupations of cases were farmers, unemployed house-wives, jobless, service people and students. The main types of poisons were druggery (54.29%) and pesticide (35.84%). 2044 cases (59.23%) were cured timely (in 1 hour). When comparing cases from rural hospitals (RHs) and urban hospitals (UHs): ratio of poisoning attempted suicides in RHs to all poisoning cases was higher than UHs with significant gender difference (P < 0.05). UHs number one cause of poisoning was druggery, but in RHs it was pesticide., Conclusion: Poisoning attempted suicide was very serious in China. Farmers and women were among the high-risk groups. Druggery and pesticide were the primary poisons, suggesting that management enforcement was in urgent need.

Objective: To analyze the characteristics of injuries between two types of Emergency Department (ED) in China., Methods: We selected 25 hospital EDs in the whole country as spots for investigation, and designed one special questionnaire to collect information, from 1st July, 2001 to 30th June, 2002., Results: In city hospitals (CIH), the proportion of injury to all diseases were 19.65%, and in country hospital (COH) it was 29.88%. The fatality rate of injuries was 1.29% in COH, which was higher than that of CIH's (P < 0.001). In COH, ambulance was more frequently used to treat injury patients than in CIH, but the average rescue time was not different. In cities, machinery was the leading cause (about 32.88%), but in country it was due to transpert (35.34%). Traffic accidents, suicide/homicide and unintentional drowning were the main causes of death. In CIH, the number of unintentional poisoning was almost twice as intentional, but in COH the patients due to poisoning suicide act were more than unintentional poisoning, with 2/3 of the poisoning causes were women. Patients due to chemical, drug and food poisoning accounted for 86.13% in CIH, while in COH the main causes were pesticidal, chemical and druggery (89.80%). In all poisons, pesticide was the leading cause for death., Conclusion: It's suggested that patients with injury be treated timely since the acute injury patients accounted for important part of ED's patients. The differences between CIH and COH were obvious, with better ability of treatment in CIH than in COH. More relevant measures were needed to improve the ability of acute treatment for injuries.

Objective: This study aimed to study the characteristics of injuries in the Emergency Departments., Methods: Acute injuries of the Emergency Department attendants from Jury 1, 2001 to June 30, 2002 were selected., Results: 25,019 cases were sampled. Results showed that injured persons accounted for 17.46% of all emergent cases attending the above hospitals. 81.67% of the injuries were accidental. Sex ratio was 2.0. Young people aged 15-34 years accounted for 50.63% of all the injuries. The leading cause was mechanical injury, followed by traffic accidents and accidental falls. The leading occupation would include workers, followed by farmers and students. The fatality rate was 5.12 per thousand. The number of deaths for young people accounted for 79.69% of all deaths. The number of deaths for motor vehicle accidents took the first place and accounted for 46.88%. The characteristics due to mechanical injury and 11,151 cases of acute poisoning were analyzed., Conclusion: To develop a surveillance post on injuries in the Emergency Departments of general hospitals are not only necessary, urgent but feasible.