title: Cross-country comparison of victimisation-related injury admission in children and adolescents in England and Western Australia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A single, standardised measure of victimisation-related (VR) injury admission in hospital administrative datasets could allow monitoring of preventive and response strategies and international comparisons of policy. Consistency of risk factors and incidence rates for a measure of victimisation-related injury in different countries with similar access to healthcare services would provide indirect evidence for measure validity.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cohorts were derived from hospital administrative data for children aged less than 18 years who were admitted for acute injury to hospitals in England or Western Australia (WA) in 2000 to 2008. We compared the effects of age, sex and deprivation on the annual incidence of acute admission for VR injury defined by a cluster of ICD-10 codes reflecting characteristics that should alert clinicians to consider victimisation as a cause of injury. Four subcategories comprised codes specifically indicating child maltreatment, assault, undetermined cause, or adverse social circumstances.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The incidence of VR injury followed a similar 'J'-shaped association with age in both countries with increasing rates from 10 years onwards and peaks in infancy and in 16-17 year-olds. In both countries, rates increased with deprivation. Girls had lower rates than boys except in the 11-15 age group where girls had higher rates than boys in WA but not in England. Adjusted incidence rates were similar in both countries for children aged 3 to 15 years old, but were higher in WA compared with England in children under 3 years old and in those aged 16-17 years. Higher rates in WA in 16-17 year-olds were explained by more admissions coded for the subcategories of adverse social circumstances, and to a lesser extent, assault, than in England. Children less than 3 years old were more often coded specifically for maltreatment in WA than in England.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The similarities in risk factors and in the adjusted rates of victimisation-related injury admission in both countries suggest that the VR cluster of ICD-10 codes is measuring a similar underlying problem. Differential use of coding subcategories highlights the need to use the entire VR cluster for comparisons across settings.
authors.forename: Arturo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gonzalez-Izquierdo
authors.forename: Allison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: O'Donnell
authors.forename: Leah
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Roposch
authors.forename: Fiona
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Stanley
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gilbert
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000628:therapy; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D014904:Western Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy