Background The UK Government introduced legislation banning XL bully dogs in England and Wales in February 2024. In response, and to prevent the movement of dogs over the border, Scottish Government introduced legal controls from February 2024 with a ban in place from July 2024. There is a need to further understand and characterise the impact of dog bites on health.

Objective Describe the epidemiology of dog related injuries causing hospital admission in Scotland.

Methods A retrospective analysis of SMR01/01 hospital admission data under ICD10 code W54 (bitten or struck by a dog) from 1997 to 2022 was conducted using RStudio Team (2022).

In addition, a pilot study was carried out to scrutinise all emergency department (ED) attendances at one unit over a two month period to evaluate capture of dog bite events and dog type in routine records.

Results The crude rate of hospital admissions to Scottish hospitals with dog bite/strike injuries between 1997 and 2022 increased from 5.9 to 17.2 per 100,000 population, with an annual IRR of 1.047. Yearly admission incidence has risen most steeply in adults. For children <10 years most injuries were to the head and face, while injuries to the hand and wrist were most common from 15 years onwards. Hospital admissions were 2.4 times higher in those from the most deprived quintile compared to the least deprived.

The ED pilot study showed that in 80% of cases of dog bite/strike injury the external cause was not recorded in administrative data. Scrutiny of all attendances enabled the type of dog to be identified in about 50% of cases.

Conclusions Results showed the crude rate of dog related injuries admitted to hospital increased nearly three times over 25 years, with the increase largely seen in adults. A pilot study showed that the external cause of dog bite/injury in an ED was poorly coded. Further work is required to understand the reasons for increased admissions. improved coding of ED attendances would provide better evidence to inform policy decisions.