Studies show a relationship between social inequality and intentional and unintentional trauma (Marmot et al., 1999; Leclerc et al., 2000). This relationship is poorly understood in Quebec, however, since data on trauma is derived primarily from administrative files (for death and hospitalization), which contain no information on the socioeconomic status of trauma victims.
The recent development of a deprivation index that can be used with these files enables us to at least partially fill this information gap (Pampalon et al., 2000). In this brief paper, we seek to determine whether material and social deprivation is associated with death and hospitalization due to intentional and unintentional trauma in Quebec.
In Quebec, material and social deprivation are strongly associated with trauma. While UT (mostly road traffic accidents) is affected by material deprivation, IT (suicide and homicide) is affected in equal measure by the social and material components. Social…