Injuries in the North – analysis of 20 years of surveillance data collected by the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program

Figures & data

Fig. 1 Age and gender distributions of injuries reported to the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP) from communities within the Northwest Territories (NWT) and Nunavut, 1991–2010.

Table I Distribution of injury characteristics reported to the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP) from communities within the Northwest Territories (NWT) and Nunavut, 1991–2010

	Number^α of injuries by gender
Injury characteristics	Males	Females	Total^β (%)
Intent of injury^β
Unintentional	35,511	19,035	54,546 (83.8)
Intentional self-harm	415	511	926 (1.4)
Assault and maltreatment*	3,161	1,619	4,780 (7.3)
Other not specified	3,108	1,756	4,864 (7.5)
Nature of Injury^β
Superficial/open wound/soft tissue	21,030	10,230	31,260 (48.0)
Dislocation/sprain/strain/pulled elbow	8,176	5,462	13,638 (20.9)
Fractures	4,469	2,472	6,941 (10.7)
Brain injury	1,456	812	2,268 (3.5)
Foreign body	1,550	582	2,132 (3.3)
Poison/toxic effects	664	724	1,388 (2.1)
Eye/globe	997	372	1,369 (2.1)
Injury to nerve/vessel/tendon	854	487	1,341 (2.1)
Burns/corrosion	769	514	1,283 (2.0)
Crushing/amputation	676	229	905 (1.4)
Frostbites	217	82	299 (0.5)
Drowning and other asphyxias	134	82	216 (0.3)
Activity at the time of injury^β
Occupational	8,827	1,732	10,559 (16.2)
Maintenance and chores	4,176	1,962	6,138 (9.4)
Other sports	2,856	1,307	4,163 (6.4)
Leisure activities	1,975	1,046	3,021 (4.6)
Organized sports	1,983	748	2,731 (4.2)
Other transports	930	828	1,758 (2.7)
Vital activities	679	652	1,331 (2.0)
Bicycling	864	334	1,198 (1.8)
Cooking and food preparations	395	356	751 (1.1)
ATV and snowmobiles	459	177	636 (1.0)
Fighting	362	89	451 (0.7)
Pedestrian	173	130	303 (0.5)
Number of injuries admitted and/or transferred to a hospital
Admitted or transferred to a hospital	2,303	1,427	3,730 (5.7)

αOne CHIRPP record is completed for every injury event; βexcluding unknown/missing; ATV, all-terrain vehicles.

*Assaults (sexual, unspecified, victims of assault) and maltreatment (by parent/caregiver or spouse/partner).

Table II Proportionate injury ratio (PIR) (17) and confidence interval (95% CI) (18) by gender and selected injury characteristics reported to the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP) from communities within the Northwest Territories (NWT) and Nunavut, 1991–2010

	Total			Males			Females
Injury characteristics	PIR	(95% CI)		PIR	(95% CI)		PIR	(95% CI)
Intent of injury
Unintentional	0.93	0.92	0.94	0.93	0.92	0.94	0.93	0.91	0.94
Intentional self-harm	0.94	0.88	1.00	1.03	0.93	1.13	0.93	0.85	1.01
Assault and maltreatment*	2.80	2.72	2.88	2.47	2.39	2.56	3.57	3.40	3.75
Nature of injury
Superficial/open wound/soft tissue	1.07	1.06	1.08	1.86	1.84	1.88	1.02	1.00	1.04
Dislocation/sprain/strain/pulled elbow	1.37	1.34	1.39	1.36	1.33	1.39	1.40	1.36	1.44
Fractures	0.62	0.60	0.63	0.61	0.59	0.63	0.63	0.61	0.66
Brain injury	0.76	0.73	0.79	0.77	0.73	0.81	0.75	0.70	0.80
Foreign body	1.00	0.96	1.05	0.92	0.88	0.97	1.16	1.07	1.25
Poison/toxic effects	1.21	1.15	1.28	1.41	1.31	1.52	1.14	1.06	1.22
Eye (globe)	0.79	0.75	0.84	0.78	0.73	0.83	0.80	0.72	0.88
Injury to nerve/vessel/tendon	0.72	0.68	0.76	0.67	0.62	0.71	0.83	0.76	0.91
Burns/corrosion	1.33	1.26	1.40	1.35	1.26	1.45	1.34	1.23	1.46
Crushing/amputation	2.28	2.14	2.44	2.20	2.04	2.37	2.30	2.02	2.62
Frostbites	7.39	6.60	8.28	6.92	6.06	7.91	15.67	12.62	19.46
Drowning and other asphyxias	1.52	1.33	1.74	1.50	1.26	1.77	1.58	1.27	1.96
Activity at the time of injury
Occupational	1.19	1.17	1.22	1.26	1.23	1.29	0.85	0.81	0.89
Maintenance and chores	1.06	1.03	1.08	0.94	0.91	0.97	1.31	1.25	1.37
Other sports	0.68	0.66	0.70	0.64	0.62	0.66	0.77	0.73	0.81
Leisure activities	1.23	1.19	1.27	1.29	1.23	1.35	1.14	1.07	1.21
Organized sports	1.93	1.79	2.09	1.65	1.51	1.81	2.85	2.46	3.30
Other transports	0.50	0.47	0.52	0.48	0.45	0.51	0.54	0.51	0.58
Vital activities	1.12	1.06	1.18	1.12	1.04	1.21	1.17	1.08	1.26
Bicycling	0.81	0.76	0.85	0.77	0.72	0.83	0.87	0.78	0.96
Cooking and food preparations	1.08	1.01	1.16	1.23	1.12	1.36	1.02	0.92	1.13
ATV and snowmobiles	1.93	1.79	2.09	1.65	1.51	1.81	2.85	2.46	3.30
Fighting	1.48	1.35	1.62	1.40	1.27	1.56	1.60	1.30	1.97
Pedestrian	1.93	1.79	2.09	1.65	1.51	1.81	2.85	2.46	3.30
Number of injuries admitted and/or transferred to a hospital
Admitted or transferred to a hospital	0.71	0.69	0.74	0.63	0.60	0.66	0.88	0.84	0.93

*Assaults (sexual, unspecified, victims of assault) and maltreatment (by parent/caregiver or spouse/partner).

ATV, all-terrain vehicles.

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