Young girls aged 10 - 14 are four to five times more likely than
other people to end up in hospital with injuries due to horse
riding, according to a recent study by the Australian Institute of
Health and Welfare (AIHW).
The study, published today in the AIHW National Injury
Surveillance Units Australian Injury Prevention Bulletin
(Issue 24), found that although death and injury from horse-riding
is a small fraction of all death and injury cases, the injuries
that did occur tended to be serious.
Broken arms and head injuries were most common. This was
particularly so for young riders, and especially so for girls.
Author of the study, Dr Raymond Cripps, said that the relatively
high injury rate in young girls was probably more a result of the
numbers of young girls riding horses often, rather than a result of
their youth or gender.
Nevertheless, no good rider would ever be complacent the chance
of severe injury is always there, with head injury being
potentially the most serious. This is because of the
unpredictability, size and weight of the horse, combined with the
height of the rider above the ground.
Approximately 20 Australians are killed as a result of
horse-riding activities each year, with 3000 being admitted to
hospital with horse-related injuries.
One in five of these admissions are due to head injury as a
result of falling from the horse.
For those of us interested in quirky facts, the number of
horse-related hospital admissions is double the number for dog
bites, Dr Cripps said.
Other findings of the study include:
- Queensland has the highest incidence of horse-related injuries
and deaths in Australia. The death rate in Queensland (0.25
horse-related deaths per 100,000 population) is almost twice the
national rate.
- More than one-third of hospital cases involving horse-related
injuries occurred in capital cities and suburbs, with the highest
number in New South Wales (403 cases).
- Women aged over 34 years were less likely to have a
horse-related accident than their male counterparts.
13 July 2000
Further information: Dr Raymond Cripps, NISU,
tel. 08 8374 0970.
For media copies of the report: Publications Officer,
tel. 02 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for availability.