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One possible explanation of the roughly doubled rates for elderly women is that
there are many more of them living alone and in consequence they have to do many
things for themselves that a spouse or other relative can do for those who are not alone.
(In the 1951 census of 98,800 single-person households where the person was aged 60 or
over no less than 78,500 were women.) It does not follow, of course, that a large proportion
of these elderly women would relish help—many of them cling almost unreasonably
to their ' independence
In a few areas it has been found possible to provide, to a limited extent, evening help
where necessary and where no other agency is available, to persons living on their own
through the home help service. This arrangement helps to ensure that the old person is
at the outset safe for the night.
A divisional breakdown of the types of accident is set out in Table IV—in view of
the gross inequalities of population as between one division and another accident rates
per 10,000 population have been added at the foot of this table. The low rate in Division 5
is particularly noticeable—some small part may be due to lack of opportunity, e.g., falls
in gardens, but the major part of the discrepancy may be due to a combination of a lower
proportion of one-person households than in the county as a whole and a greater feeling
of neighbourliness in the somewhat insular communities involved.
Seasonal variation
The total numbers of accidents were remarkably constant over the four quarters (in
the 12 months ending 31 March 1956)—1,842, 1,817, 2,055 and 1,981—and for some
causes it was also constant, e.g., falls from ladders were 49, 45, 42 and 44. The number of
falls outside or in the garden naturally rose in the summer being mainly due to children
playing outdoors. Accidents involving fires also rose understandably in the winter
jumping from 19 and 30 in the first two quarters to 74 and 94 in the last two.
Children also tended to have more accidents in the summer—1,029 in the period
April to September inclusive compared with 617 in the winter, whereas the reverse
applied to old people. For those aged 60+ the figures in each quarter were 708, 710,
967 and 1,028.
An analysis was also made of accidents by day and time. So far as days were concerned
Saturday was worst for men, but taking the week-end as a whole the period was
no worse than any other during the week. As regards time the only certainty is the time
at which an ambulance was called and there will have been a time lag of unknown
duration between the accidents and the summons. Subject to this limitation there was
a peak incidence between 12 noon and 1 p.m. and another lesser one between 6 p.m.
and 7 p.m.; there was no difference between the sexes except the greater incidence of
accidents sustained by women; the evening was the worst time for children. There is
nothing particularly surprising about the results of the analysis which are clearly
explainable in terms of the occupancy of the home coupled with the incidence of meals
and their preparation—the absence of a breakfast peak may be due to its often being
scanty and hable to be eaten in relays.
It is proposed to continue to scrutinise data from the ambulance service in order to
have a running measure of incidence. This will also provide a means of evaluating the
effects of the various campaigns and of the more persistent propaganda based on the
data collected on causes (to which reference is made in the next section of the report).
Health visitors
Details of the 336 home accidents reported by the health visitors as occurring to
children under five years of age are set out in Table V. It will be noted first that most of
the accidents occurred at ages one and two when the children were beginning to find
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