The incidence and distribution of serious motor vehicle-related injury in Brisbane - 1998

Chuchotesakulwong, Sithara (2001). The incidence and distribution of serious motor vehicle-related injury in Brisbane - 1998 Master's Thesis, School of Population Health, The University of Queensland.

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Author Chuchotesakulwong, Sithara
Thesis Title The incidence and distribution of serious motor vehicle-related injury in Brisbane - 1998
School, Centre or Institute School of Population Health
Institution The University of Queensland
Publication date 2001
Thesis type Master's Thesis
Total pages 86
Language eng
Subjects 1117 Public Health and Health Services
Formatted abstract Background / Introduction: While the burden of motor vehicle-related injury is recognised in both national and international literature, detailed analysis of the nature and extent of the problem in public health terms has been less comprehensive. In particular there has been limited accurate information available of the incidence of hospitalised injuries and the spectrum of injuries that are sustained by the various road user groups. This thesis aims to fill this gap and to describe the nature and extent of the car and motor cycle-related injury in the circumscribed area of Brisbane. The public health model of injury control is presented as a way to reduce the health hazard of road injury.

Methods: Four sources of data were used to cover the representation of car and motor cycle-related injuries in Queensland. These were the Queensland Trauma Registry (QTR), the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau, Queensland Transport and population statistics from the 1996 population census data of the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The major component of the study used QTR data which originally was collected on those patients admitted for greater than 24 hours from 9 hospitals in Brisbane for treatment of trauma. The variables covered in the analysis were the variables available in the original data collection, including the demographic variables, injury event variables, injury variables, emergency department clinical information and finally injury outcome variables. The analysis compound the road user categories car drivers, car passengers and motorbike riders and pillions. The methods employed were those of descriptive analytic method supported by tests of significance. Incidence rates and the risks of road crash injury to the population and the licence holders were also calculated, as well as relative risks for the user groups.

Results: In the Greater Brisbane region during 1998 there were 978 people hospitalised with car and motor cycle-related injuries. Young males were over represented in these cases. Motor cycle-related injuries constituted a disproportionately major component of the problem. Given the difference in exposure to motor cycles compared to cars, there was a seventy fold increased risk of injury for motor cyclists. The incidence rates for injury were 60.0 and 33.6 per 100 000 population for motor car and motor cycle users, respectively. Injury to the extremities was the most frequently occurring area of injury to both car occupants and motor cyclists, followed by injuries to the head and chest. The motor cyclist group suffered the least serious injuries, major injuries and severe head injuries being more frequent in the passenger group.

Discussion / Conclusion: This thesis provides an accurate estimation of the incidence of hospitalised car and motor cycle-related injury in Brisbane. The information facilitates planning and provision of emergency medical services and acute care of patients. Further exploration of strategies to prevent and more effectively manage motor vehicle-related injury in Australia needs to be made. Extrapolation of these findings may encourage such preventive activity in other countries (for example Thailand) where motor cycle use is proportionately much higher than in Brisbane.
Keyword Crash injuries -- Queensland -- Brisbane.
Traffic accidents -- Queensland -- Brisbane.
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Created: Mon, 16 Nov 2009, 11:41:42 EST by Lachlan Kuhn on behalf of Social Sciences and Humanities Library Service