Hospitalisation due to falls in older people, Australia 2003-04
This report examines Australian hospital data pertaining to fall injuries in people aged 65 and older in 2003-04. The number of fall events resulting in hospitalisation due to injury for older Australians remains high and the rate of fall-related injury incidents is particularly high for the oldest group within this population. Women are at greatest risk of fall-related injury. Fall incidents most commonly result in a fracture and hip fractures are particularly frequent. This report also highlights that a substantial proportion of fall-related injuries are injuries to the head, which may require more specifically-targeted prevention interventions. Multiple hospital separations due to a single fall incident substantially add to the burden of disease for older Australians. Separations principally involving follow-up care, rehabilitation and other fall-related conditions contributed 136% more bed-days than those occupied due to initial episodes due to fall injury incidents and brought the total number of fall-related hospital bed-days for people aged 65 and older in 2003-04 to over 1.2 million. The estimated total cost for fall-related acute care in Australian hospitals for people aged 65 and older in 2003-04 was $566.0 million. This represents a substantial proportion of the burden of disease and health expenditure for this population and suggests that the lifetime cost of falls in older people may be substantially higher than has been previously calculated.
The burden of disease and injury in Australia 2003
'The burden of disease and injury in Australia 2003' provides a comprehensive assessment of the health status of Australians. The report measures mortality, disability, impairment, illness and injury arising from 176 diseases, injuries and risk factors using a common metric, the disability-adjusted life year or DALY, and methods developed by the Global Burden of Disease Study. Burden of disease analysis gives a unique perspective on health. Fatal and non-fatal outcomes are integrated, but can be examined separately as well. This report provides detailed estimates of the burden of mortality and disability for each disease and injury category by sex and age. It also assesses the burden attributable to each of 14 major risk factors, and inequalities in the disease burden associated with socioeconomic disadvantage.
Injury of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people due to transport, 1999-00 to 2003-04
This report looks at the death and serious injury of Indigenous persons in Australia due to transport accidents in the five-year period 1999-00 to 2003-04. It focuses on the four jurisdictions of the Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland and examines variables such as mode of transport, gender, age group and remoteness from an urban centre. DOTARS Report Number: 50250.
Fall-related hospitalisations among older people: sociocultural and regional aspects
The ageing of the Australian population has enlarged the population at high risk of fall-related injury and population projections imply substantial increase in years to come. A large proportion of Australia's older population were born overseas and changing migration patterns following the Second World War have resulted in an older population which is becoming highly culturally and linguistically diverse. This report examines fall-related hospitalisations for people aged 65 and older for the years 2000-03 according to country of birth and place of usual residence.
Electrical injury and death
This Briefing provides an overview of hospitalisations and deaths occurring as a result of electrical injury or exposure to lightning. Serious electrical injuries are relatively infrequent and injuries occurring as a result of lightning are extremely rare events. Over the two year period 2002-03 to 2003-04 only 1,493 people were hospitalised as a result of an electrical injury at an age-adjusted rate of 3.78 cases per 100,000 population. Deaths occurring as a result of electrical injury or lightning are even rarer with 162 cases in the four years examined (2001-04).
Hospital separations due to injury and poisoning, Australia 2003-04
This report presents national statistics on injuries that resulted in admission to hospitals in Australia. It includes cases discharged during the year to 30 June 2004. The report has been designed to complement 'Injury deaths, Australia 2003-04'.Falls, transport-related injury, intentional self-harm and assault are common causes of hospitalised injury in the Australian community. Injuries due to these and other causes are described, in terms of case numbers and rates, by age and sex, remoteness of usual residence, length of stay in hospital, external causes of injury, and other characteristics.The report will be relevant to anyone interested in gaining an insight into patterns of injury morbidity and the burden it imposes on the Australian community.
Injury deaths, Australia 2003-04
This report describes injury mortality in Australia during 2003-04. It includes information about the major causes of injury such as transport-related deaths, suicide and accidental falls. The data provided in relation to each cause include age and sex, state and territory differences, remoteness of residence, trends over time, and other associated factors. It also contains a brief overview of injury mortality associated with complications of surgical and medical care.The report will be relevant to anyone interested in gaining an insight into patterns of injury mortality and the burden it imposes on the Australian community.
Hospitalised injury of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples 2000-02
The report provides a cross-sectional summary of hospital separations due to injury and poisoning for the aggregated data collection periods 2000-01, and 2001-the 02 for Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Hip fracture injuries
The incidence of hip fractures is rising and projected to further increase in Australia due to the population growth in the oldest age groups, where hip fractures are the most common form of fracture. Hip fractures result in a large economic burden due to health expenditure in most industrialised countries and, hence, understanding the nature of hip fracture related hospitalisations and deaths is important.
Burns and scalds
This report shows that burns and scalds are common, the greatest number of events resulting in burn injuries take place within the home, and most are not very severe. The majority are classified as partial burns, and affect a body surface area of less than 10%. Most at risk of burn injury are children aged less than 4 years old, young males and older adults. For such populations the rate of hospitalisation is high, and according to literature in the area, the majority of these injuries are preventable.
Childhood poisoning in Australia
Each year in Australia since 1999-00 about 4,700 cases of poisoning in children under the age of 15 years resulted in hospitalisation. Of these, 63% were due to poisoning by pharmaceutical substances and 37% to poisoning by non-pharmaceutical substances.
Child injury due to falls from playground equipment, Australia 2002-2004
This report examines Australian hospital separations and deaths data for injuries coded as being due to unintentional falls involving playground equipment, which were sustained by children aged 0-14 years of age, in the reporting period July 2002 to June 2004.
Spinal cord injury, Australia 2004-05
Severe spinal cord injury is a very debilitating injury. This report presents information from the Australian Spinal Cord Injury Register on 381 cases from trauma and disease in 2004-05. During the year, 280 new cases of spinal cord injury from traumatic causes were registered in Australia, an age-adjusted incidence rate of 15.4 cases per million population. The most common clinical outcome of spinal cord injury was incomplete tetraplegia. Falling was the most common type of event leading to traumatic spinal cord injury at older ages. The Australian Spinal Cord Injury Register is a collaborative activity of the AIHW National Injury Surveillance Unit and all of the specialist spinal units in Australia.
Planning and testing CATI-based injury prevention population surveys
Computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) is an increasingly common survey methodology in the public health arena. CATI methodology has been applied both in highly specific areas of health behaviours research and broad-scale national health surveys. In recent years, the CATI Technical Reference Group -a subcommittee of the National Public Health Information Working Group-have been developing topic-specific question modules for population health surveys in conjunction with key informants.
Hospitalised basketball and netball injuries
Exercise is important for minimising risk of conditions including cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, hypertension, mental health disorders and premature death. It is not uncommon for participants to be injured but most injuries are not severe. A study of sport- and exercise-related injury in the Latrobe Valley found one hospital admission for every 10 emergency admissions and 12 general practiceconsultations. Hospitalised injuries tend to be more severe and costly than other injuries. Hence, while hospitalised sports injuries are small as a proportion of all sport injuries, they warrant attention.
New External Cause categories in fifth edition of ICD-10-AM
The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is designed to promote internationalcomparability in the collection, processing, classification, and presentation of hospitalinpatient and mortality data. The Tenth Revision of the International Classification ofDiseases (ICD-10) is used to code diagnoses and external causes of injury andpoisoning. Chapter XIX - Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of externalcauses and Chapter XX - External causes of morbidity and mortality are particularlyimportant in relation to injury surveillance and control.
Alcohol and work: patterns of use, workplace culture and safety
Little is known regarding the alcohol consumption patterns of the Australian workforce and the impact these patterns have on workplace safety, workplace productivity and workers' wellbeing. This report addresses this lack of knowledge, and is one of the most comprehensive examinations of the role of alcohol in the Australian workplace.
Hospital separations due to injury and poisoning, Australia 2001-02
This report presents national statistics on injuries that resulted in admission to hospitals in Australia. It includes cases discharged during the year to 30 June 2002. The report has been designed to complement 'Injury Deaths, Australia 2002'. Falls, transport-related injury, intentional self-harm and assault are common causes of hospitalised injury in the Australian community. Injuries due to these and other causes are described, in terms of case numbers and rates, by age and sex, remoteness of usual residence, length of stay in hospital, external causes of injury, and other characteristics. The report will be relevant to anyone interested in gaining an insight into patterns of injury morbidity and the burden it imposes on the Australian community.
Hospitalised sports injury, Australia 2002-03
It is common for persons participating in sport to be injured. Only a minority of these injuries require hospitalisation. However, hospitalised injuries are usually more severe and costly than others. This report describes hospitalised sports injury in 2002-2003, in Australia. Fourteen sports groupings are reviewed in detail, including football, water sports, cycling and roller sports. Topics covered for these groupings include body region most frequently injured, type of injury and mechanism of injury, age and sex. It is of relevance to both health personnel and sporting bodies.
Spinal cord injury, Australia, 2003-04
Severe spinal cord injury (SCI) is a very debilitating injury. Australia was the first country to implement a national population-based register to enable surveillance of SCI cases to help prevent and control this problem. This report provides information on case registrations for the year 2003-04.
Dog-related injuries
This report on dog-related injury is the second in a new series of statistical reports from the National Injury Surveillance Unit. Under the title NISU Briefing, these reports are designed to be short, accessible and focused on a specific topic. They will be released primarily in electronic form. The NISU Briefing on dog-related injury uses deaths and hospitalisations data for Australia to examine patterns of injury from dog bites and other types of dog-related attacks.
Potential changes to chapters XIX and XX for fifth revision ICD-10-AM: submission to NCCH
Occupational Safety Research in Australia
In this issue... Key occupational injury organisations; Role of design in serious work-related injury (NOHSC); Role of machinery design in farm injury among males; Contribution of coroners to designing for safety; Regulatory approach to minimising design-related occupational injury; Retrofitting of safe tractor access platforms; Influence of product design on risk perception and behaviour; Design issues and mining injuries; Engineering solutions to manual handling and fall hazards in plasterers; PhD students involved in occupational injury research; Safe tractor assessment rating system; Occupational injury websites; Product Safety Study; From the Coroner: all terrain vehicles and scuba diving; A picture of Australias children; Keeping kids safe on Western Australias roads; Dishwasher detergent injuries; Next world injury conference; Survey of Aboriginal children and young people; Injury seminars on the Internet; Stay on Your Feet WA; Draft swimming pool standards; Information sharing; Mexican ICE meeting.
A guide to statistical methods for injury surveillance
The aim of this report is to provide a systematic guide on how to report injury in amethodologically robust manner. It was specifically designed for NISU staff. The report draws on a wide range of data sources and draws them together with practical examples pertinent to the injuryfield.
Injury deaths, Australia 1999: with a focus on the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10
This report describes injury mortality in Australia during 1999. It includes information about the major causes of injury such as transport-related deaths, suicide and accidental falls. The data provided in relation to each cause include age and sex, State and Territory differences, trends over time, and other associated factors. It also examines, in detail, the implications of the transition from Version 9 to Version 10 of the International Classification of Diseases. The report will be relevant to anyone interested in gaining an insight into patterns of injury mortality and the burden it imposes on the Australian community.