In Focus - Injury prevention
This month our health issue 'in focus' is injury prevention.
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 in Australia.
Here we provide information on the RFDS role in responding to emergency situations and preventing injury in rural and remote areas.
There are links to resources on injury prevention and key papers/reports for health professionals as well as a list of key external websites devoted to injury prevention.
Key facts and figures
- injury is a major contributor to premature mortality in Australia, and there is a strong pattern of increasing mortality from injury with increasing remoteness, particularly for males
- death rates for all causes of injury in males living in ‘other remote areas’ were double those of males living in ‘capital cities’
- males living in ‘other rural areas’ experienced death rates from injury around 50% higher than those living in ‘capital cities’
- death rates from road vehicle accidents show an even more pronounced pattern of increase with increasing remoteness
- both males and females living in ‘other rural areas’ die in road vehicle accidents at more than double the rate of those living in ‘capital cities’
- Rural and remote “residents have greater exposure to injury, in particular for persons employed in farming and mining”
- Injury, in particular transport-related accidents, impacts disproportionately upon the health of males. In 1995 alone, there were 5,130 male injury deaths in Australia in comparison to 2,227 female deaths. The male death rate for injury remains at 2.7 times the female death rate despite significant overall decline in injury death rates over the past two-and-a-half decades (AIHW & DHFS 1997). This ratio rises to 3:1 in parts of rural and remote Australia.
- The major causes of ill health in the Indigenous population are injury, coronary heart disease, diabetes and homicide. Road transport-related accidents, homicide and suicide account for 70% of all injury-related Indigenous deaths. In fact, almost 20% of the deaths from injury in the Indigenous population are due to homicide, compared with only 4% in the non-Indigenous population. Regardless of cause, male death rates from injury are twice as high in the Indigenous population in the remote zone than in the non-Indigenous population.
- Specific health-related issues for the aged population include mortality and hospitalisation due to injury, specifically burns and falls. Mortality resulting from burns makes up only 2% of deaths from external causes, but it disproportionately affects those over 55 years of age. The death rate due to burns increases with increasing distance from the metropolitan zone and is highest in remote RRMA categories. Aged Indigenous people are at particular risk of death from burns. The numbers dying from burns are small compared with the numbers of aged people who die from the after-effects of falls. Most deaths from injury in the over 65 years age group are related to the after-effects of falls. Females are particularly at risk because osteoporosis is often a cause of falls and their related fractures. Females living in ‘remote centres’ have twice the death rate from falls compared with their metropolitan counterparts.
Ref: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 1998. AIHW Cat. No. PHE 6. Health in rural and remote Australia.
Canberra: AIHW.