An evaluation of an injury prevention campaign in general practice in Norway.

When the community diagnosis was described for two islands, Vaerøy and Røst, in 1970-73 injuries were found to be the most common single diagnosis. During one year (1979-80) all the injured patients who contacted the district physician in the municipality of Vaerøy were recorded in order to study the aetiology of injuries. Based on the experience from this study, an injury prevention programme was designed for this local community. The campaign started in 1981. A follow-up study in 1981-83 evaluated the effect of the prevention campaign. Two years after the programme started, the occurrence of injuries had declined by 29 per cent.