Open AccessAre we closing the Aboriginal child injury gap? A cohort study
Author(s) -
Möller Holger,
Ivers Rebecca,
Clapham Kathleen,
Jorm Louisa
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.946
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1753-6405
pISSN - 1326-0200
DOI - 10.1111/1753-6405.12866
Subject(s) - medicine , cohort , injury prevention , occupational safety and health , poison control , demography , suicide prevention , cohort study , emergency medicine , pediatrics , pathology , sociology
Objective: To assess if rates of hospitalised injury in Australian Aboriginal children, and differences in these rates between Aboriginal and non‐Aboriginal children, have changed over time. Methods: We used linked hospital data for New South Wales (NSW), Australia, to construct cohorts of children born in NSW hospitals between 2003–2007 and 2008–2012. We calculated rates of hospitalised injuries per 10,000 person years for Aboriginal and non‐Aboriginal children for both cohorts, and compared these using rate differences and rate ratios. Results: Rates of unintentional injury hospitalisation were similar in Aboriginal children in both cohorts and Aboriginal children had 1.7 times higher rates of unintentional injury hospitalisation compared with non‐Aboriginal children. Rate ratios between Aboriginal and non‐Aboriginal children for leading injury mechanisms, burns, poisonings and transport were similar in both cohorts, with 2.5, 3.0 and 2.4 times higher rates in Aboriginal children in the 2008–2012 cohort, respectively. Conclusions and Implications for public health: Our findings suggest that current injury prevention measures have not been successful in reducing either rates of unintentional injury in Aboriginal children, or injury inequalities between Aboriginal and non‐Aboriginal children. We recommend the implementation of targeted Aboriginal led injury prevention measures.