Using routine accident and emergency department data to describe local injury epidemiology.

All 17330 Accident and Emergency Department (A and E) attendances following injury (67% of all A and E attendances by residents of the EH54 postcode (the town of Livingston) at St John's Hospital during 1995 and 1996 were examined to study local accident epidemiology. The overall annual injury attendance rate for males (245.7/1000) and females (148.0/1000) and sex and age group analyses show recognised patterns reflecting occupation and domestic circumstances. Higher attendance rates were associated with greater deprivation and living close to the hospital. The unique injury coding system used by the hospital offers the potential to highlight particular injury types occurring within population sub-groups. When linked with primary care and out-of-hours centre data, this could be useful in targeting preventive activities; this will be facilitated in this hospital, which will become part of a 'combined' acute and primary care trust from April 1999.