Karolinska Institutet, Department of Public Health Sciences, Division of Social Medicine

Abstract

The first Safe Community- program that we know of so far was developed in the municipality of Falköping, Sweden. The ideas behind the program were taken up by communities in countries like Norway, Denmark, France, The UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand among others. Independently of this source of information, programs were developed in countries like Thailand, Indonesia and later South America. The idea was picked up in Norway and the Vaeroy study was not only able to repeat the effects from Falköping but also to show an extensive long term effect with 58 % reduction after eight years. Further programs in Sweden were also evaluated. For example in Lidköping a study on child injuries showed on average a 2,1%(boys) to 2,4%(girls) annual decrease of injuries leading to hospital admissions from 1983 to 1991. In the same community a study on elderly showed a significantly declining trend of femoral fractures for females (-6.6% per year) and a -5.4% decline for males during the study period of 1987-1992. The control areas showed a minor or even increasing trends during the same periods. In 1995 another academic doctoral thesis was released, this time from the University of Tromsö, Norway. It is based on five papers from intentional journals, focusing on effects of intervention over up to eight years from the Harstad Injury Prevention Study. Burns were reduced by 53%, transport injuries overall by 27%, fall fractures by 26%, downhill skiing injuries by 15%. The corresponding overall injury rates increased in the control area (Trondheim) for traffic and fractures and seemed to be unaltered for burns in children.So, there are after a couple of decades some evaluation done! After this period of introducing the concept all over the world did it really make any difference whether the programmes and their outcomes were evaluated at all?

Keywords

Community, Safety, Promotion, Injury

Contact

Leif Svanström

Institution

Karolinska Institutet, Department of Public Health Sciences, Division of Social Medicine

Postaddress

Norrbacka

Postcode

SE-171 76

City

Stockholm

Country

Sweden

E-mail

leif.svanstrom@phs.ki.se

Phone

+ 46 8 517 779 42

Fax

+ 46 8 33 46 93