Injury prevention and control

NHPA Injury Prevention and Control

Contents

Why is injury prevention and control a National Health Priority Area?

Injury is the principal cause of death in people under 45, a leading cause of mortality, morbidity and permanent disability in Australia, and a major source of health care costs. Injury causes a range of physical, cognitive and psychological disabilities that seriously affect the quality of life of individuals, people and their families. However, as injury is preventable and there are significant opportunities for reducing the burden of injury by implementing effective prevention strategies, injury prevention and control was made one of the National Health Priority Areas from the outset of the initiative.

The National Injury Prevention Advisory Council has recommended four main areas for focused attention under its National Injury Prevention Plan:

Injury and poisoning represented 6% of mortality in Australia in 2003, being responsible for 7,749 deaths (5,273 males and 2,476 females). They also accounted for approximately 440,997 hospital inpatient episodes in 2002-03, which represents slightly under 7% of all hospital separations.

Which are the high risk groups and what are the major external causes?

A variety of factors increase a person's risk of being injured. Prominent among these are age, sex, alcohol use, residence, ethnicity, socio-economic status and occupation. These personal risk factors influence the type of 'external' cause of injury that occurs, such as falls, poisoning, drowning and so forth.

The pattern of injury varies significantly with age. Near-drowning and drowning are major causes of injury and death in early childhood (a stage at which a child is unable to swim and unable to recognise the dangers of water). Self harm and road crashes are primary causes of injury in young adulthood. Falls are the most common cause of injury death among the elderly due to the high susceptibility to trauma.

Suicide is the leading cause of injury death, comprising nearly 30% of all such deaths. There were 1,811 deaths attributed to transportation (mainly road accidents) in 2003, comprising 23% of all deaths due to injury in that year. Falls, particularly amongst the elderly, is the third leading cause of injury-related deaths, with over 9% of all deaths due to injury caused by accidental falls. Other major causes of injury deaths include poisoning, homicide, and fire, burns and scalds.

Injury was responsible for over 8% of the burden of disease in disability-adjusted life years (DALY) terms in Australia in 1996. The burden of injury is dominated by suicide and self-inflicted injuries and road traffic accidents, which together comprise 53% of injury DALYs. The direct costs of injuries were estimated at $4,061 million in 2000-01.