Background The literature and the knowledge regarding home and leisure injury (HLI) are far wider than it used to be a couple of decades ago. Different types of epidemiological surveillance have been carried out: cross-sectional, population, cohort studies. Nevertheless, little is known about detailed circumstances of those injuries.

Methods The French HLI permanent survey started in France in 1986 in a dozen of hospital emergency services and is fully standardised since 2004. All patients admitted for HLI are included and detailed information is collected: where, when, how, who, what product is involved as well as the chronology of the injury and the care given.

Results In France, like in other countries, several systems provide epidemiological indicators to describe HLI: incidence in population, consumption of health care services, and people at risk. However, when a specific injury needs to be more documented, such as button battery ingestion, trampoline injuries, wasp stings, barbecue burns, traumatic sport injuries, elderly falls, etc., the only system able to provide solid answers in France is the HLI permanent survey, which records around 120 000 annual injuries. The strength of the survey is the robustness guaranteed by the annual quality analysis and evaluations making the figures reliable and allowing time series analysis. Incidence rates can be estimated thanks to sophisticated models.

Conclusions For prevention purposes, there are increasing demands about HLI from the Ministry of Health, organisations, and associations. The HLI permanent survey is a key tool to improve knowledge about incidence, severity, preventability, and contributes to the diminution of those injuries through specific prevention initiatives and regulations.