Addressing childhood injury in Mount Isa: a safe communities initiative

Summary: In Australia, injury is the leading cause of death in children, accounting for one-third of all deaths in those aged 1 to 14 years (compared with 3% of deaths in adults). In Mt Isa, in the 5 year period 1998 to 2002, there were 5912 injury presentations to the Mt Isa Base Hospital Emergency Department (ED) involving children aged 0-14 years, 2165 (37%) of these in children aged 0-4. Each year on average there was one death, 76 hospitalisations and 1182 ED presentations in children aged 0-14. Transport incidents resulted in one death and 497 ED presentations in children of which 67 ED presentations occurred in children aged 0-4. Leading causes of ED presentation in children of this age were for bicycle (54%), motor vehicle passenger (24%), and pedestrian (15%) injuries. Falls resulted in 2,097 ED presentations in children aged 0-14 and 895 occurred in children aged 0-4. The most important causes of falls in children of this age were beds, tables, baths, chairs, trampolines, stairs, balconies and windows. The more serious falls were those that involved bunk beds, trampolines and balconies. Poisoning resulted in 178 ED presentations in children aged 0-14 of which 142 were to children aged 0-4. In the 0-4 age group 39% were the result of poisoning by medications, 13% plant ingestions and the remaining 48% were due to other household chemicals. Burns resulted in 224 ED presentations in children aged 0-14 of which 114 were children aged 0-4. Most common causes for the 0-4 age group were contact with hot objects (55), scalds (42) and flame burns (12). Each type of injury has its own distinctive pattern and age demographic. Significant causes of injury in children aged 0-4 often involve children of primary school age as well eg. falls from trampolines. Interventions targeting young children may be more effective in the context of interventions simultaneously aimed at older children.