Differences in injury rates in child motor vehicle passengers in rural and urban areas in New South Wales, July 2000 to June 2004.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether the pattern of hospitalised injuries in injured child motor vehicle passengers involved in traffic crashes differs in rural and urban residents of New South Wales (NSW).


METHODS
This study compared injuries of hospitalised child motor vehicle passengers resident in rural areas with those from urban areas. The NSW Inpatient Statistics Collection (ISC), a population-based dataset, was used to select cases for the period of July 2000 to June 2004. The hospitalised injury rate was calculated according to urban/rural status using Poisson regression. Injury rate ratios (IRR) comparing rural and urban children were computed overall and for specific injury types.


RESULTS
Overall, 1,286 children (aged 0-15 years) residing in NSW were identified from the NSW ISC internally linked datasets as being separated from hospital for injuries resulting from a motor vehicle crash. The overall hospitalised injury incidence rates for child motor vehicle passengers resident in rural and urban NSW areas were 46.75 (95% CI 36.63-59.66) and 20.13 (95% CI 17.94-22.58) per 100,000 children respectively. The rural/urban IRR for comparing the incidence of hospitalisation was significantly elevated (IRR=2.10, 95% CI 1.78-2.48). The IRR was also significantly elevated across most injury types. The largest risk disparity between rural and urban children was in 9-12 year-olds (IRR=2.33, 95% CI 1.73-3.13).


CONCLUSIONS
There is an elevated injury incidence rate in rural resident children, compared with their urban counterparts. This differential should be addressed in future road safety initiatives.
Du
Wei
W
New South Wales Injury Risk Management Research Centre, University of New South Wales.
Finch
Caroline
C
Hayen
Andrew
A
Hatfield
Julie
J
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009517:New South Wales / Q000453:epidemiology; D012424:Rural Population; D014505:Urban Population; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology