You are here:

  • Print

released: 8 May 2013 author: AIHW

Obesity and injury are major health burdens on society. This report studies the feasibility of using the National Hospital Morbidity Database to investigate the relationship between obesity and hospitalised injury in Australia. The database does not currently provide a reliable basis for measuring obesity among admitted patients or for assessing the characteristics of injury cases with obesity. Inclusion of height and weight information in separations data would enable analysis of the effects of body mass index on injury occurrence, treatment and outcomes.

ISSN 1444-3791; ISBN 978-1-74249-423-4; Cat. no. INJCAT 158; 50pp.; $12

printed copy

Full publication

Publication table of contents

  • Preliminary material
    • Contents
    • Acknowledgments
    • Abbreviations
    • Symbols
    • Summary
  • Body section
    • 1 Introduction
      • 1.1 Aim
      • 1.2 Defining obesity
      • 1.3 Obesity and injury
    • 2 Identification of obesity in the NHMD
      • 2.1 Obesity coding in Australia
      • 2.2 Other potential indicators of obesity in the NHMD
      • 2.3 Previous approaches to identifying obese patients in admitted patient data
    • 3 Reported obesity in the NHMD
      • 3.1 Data and selection criteria
      • 3.2 Reported obesity hospital separations
      • 3.3 Separations with diagnosis code for obesity
      • 3.4 Procedures for morbid obesity
    • 4 Obesity and hospitalised injury
      • 4.1 Indicators of obesity and injury
      • 4.2 External cause
    • 5 Discussion and conclusions
  • End matter
    • Appendix A: Data issues
    • References
    • List of tables
    • List of figures

Recommended citation

AIHW 2013. Obesity and injury in the National Hospital Morbidity Database. Injury research and statistics series 82. Cat. no. INJCAT 158. Canberra: AIHW.