The use of mapping to identify priority areas for the prevention of home injuries

Abstract

Geographical information system (GIS) technology is a potentially useful tool for policy makers to identify priority areas for the prevention of injuries in the home environment. An analysis of hospitalised injuries in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, that occurred in the home environment was conducted using Bayesian methods to calculate the expected relative home injury risk for common injury mechanisms. The results show geographic differences in the mechanism of home injuries. The risk of hospitalised fall-related injuries for people aged 75 years and over and poisoning of children four years of age or less was spread over NSW, while cut/pierce and struck by/struck against injuries showed less extensive areas of risk. This study shows that the use of geographic mapping and spatial statistics can provide a useful means of estimating home injury risk, eliminating the instability of estimates, while showing overall geographic patterns. In the future, geographical mapping of injury locations, coupled with satellite imagery, are likely to provide an additional level of detail for injury surveillance within a defined area.

Keywords:

• home injury
• geographic variation
• Bayesian methods
• injury risk

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Centre for Epidemiology and Research at the NSW Health Department for providing access to the Health Outcomes and Information Statistical Toolkit (HOIST) analysed in this study.