The socioeconomic characteristics of childhood injuries in regional Victoria, Australia: What the missing data tells us.

The socioeconomic characteristics of childhood injuries in regional Victoria, Australia: What the missing data tells us.

Background: Injury is the leading cause of death among those between 1–16 years of
age in Australia. Studies have found that injury rates increase with socioeconomic disadvantage.
Rural Urgent Care Centres (UCC) represent a key point of entry into the Victorian healthcare system
for people living in smaller rural communities, often categorised as lower socio-economic groups.
Emergency presentation data from UCCs is not routinely collated in government datasets. This study
seeks to compare socioeconomic characteristics of children aged 0–14 attending a UCC to those who
attend a 24-h Emergency Departments with an injury-related emergency presentation. This will
inform gaps in our current understanding of the links between socioeconomic status and childhood
injury in regional Victoria. Methods: A network of rural hospitals in SouthWest Victoria, Australia
provide ongoing detailed de-identified emergency presentation data as part of the Rural Acute
Hospital Data Register (RAHDaR). Data from nine of these facilities was extracted and analysed for
children (aged 0–14 years) with any principal injury-related diagnosis presenting between 1 February
2017 and 31 January 2020. Results: There were 10,137 injury-related emergency presentations of
children aged between 0–14 years to a participating hospital. The relationship between socioeconomic
status and injury was confirmed, with overall higher rates of child injury presentations from those
residing in areas of Disadvantage. A large proportion (74.3%) of the children attending rural UCCs
were also Disadvantaged. Contrary to previous research, the rate of injury amongst children from
urban areas was significantly higher than their more rural counterparts. Conclusions: Findings
support the notion that injury in Victoria differs according to socioeconomic status and suggest
that targeted interventions for the reduction of injury should consider socioeconomic as well as
geographical differences in the design of their programs.