Snow avalanche deaths in Switzerland from 1995 to 2014-Results of a nation-wide linkage study.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

More than 20 people die each year in snow avalanches in Switzerland. Previous studies have primarily described these victims, but were not population based. We investigated sociodemographic factors for avalanche mortality between 1995 and 2014 in the entire Swiss resident population.

Design and methods

Within the Swiss National Cohort we ascertained avalanche deaths by anonymous data linkage with the avalanche accident database at the Swiss WSL Institute of Snow and Avalanche Research SLF. We calculated incidence rates, by dividing the number of deaths from avalanches by the number of person-years, and hazard ratios (HRs) for sociodemographic and economic characteristics using Cox proportional hazard models.

Results

The data linkage yielded 250 deaths from

SUBMITTER: Berlin C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6890213 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature