title: Patterns of youth injury: a comparison across the northern territories and other parts of Canada.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Injury is the leading cause of death for young people in Canada. For those living in the northern territories (Yukon, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories), injury represents an even greater problem, with higher rates of injury for people of all ages in northern areas compared with the rest of Canada; however, no such comparative studies have focussed specifically on non-fatal injury in youth.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To profile and examine injuries and their potential causes among youth in the northern territories as compared with other parts of Canada.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional data from the 2009/2010 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey (youth aged 11-15 years) were examined for the Canadian northern territories and the provinces (n=26,078). Individual survey records were linked to community-level data to profile injuries and then study possible determinants via multilevel regression modelling.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of injury reported by youth was similar in northern populations and other parts of Canada. There were some minimal differences by injury type: northern youth experienced a greater percentage of neighbourhood (p<0.001) and fighting (p=0.02) injuries; youth in the Canadian provinces had a greater proportion of sport-related injuries (p=0.01). Among northern youth, female sex (RR=0.87, 95% CI 0.81-0.94), average (RR=0.88, 95% CI 0.80-0.97) or above-average affluence (RR=0.84, 95% CI 0.76-0.91), not being drunk in the past 12 months (RR=0.77, 95% CI 0.69-0.85), not riding an all-terrain vehicle (RR=0.81, 95% CI 0.68-0.97) and not having permanent road access (RR=0.89, 95% CI 0.80-0.98) were protective against injury; sport participation increased risk (RR=1.45, 95% CI 1.33-1.59).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patterns of injury were similar across youth from the North and other parts of Canada. Given previous research, this was unexpected. When implementing injury prevention initiatives, individual and community-level risk factors are essential to understand; however, specific positive safety assets that might exist in different community contexts must also be considered.
authors: Department of Public Health Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.|Kingston General Hospital Research Centre, Kingston, ON, Canada.
authors: Jessica
authors: J
authors: Byrnes
authors: Department of Public Health Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
authors: Nathan
authors: N
authors: King
authors: Menzies Centre for Health Policy, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.|O'Brien Institute of Public Health, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
authors: Penelope
authors: P
authors: Hawe
authors: Department of Sociology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada.|Department of Economics, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada.
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: Peters
authors: Department of Public Health Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.|Kingston General Hospital Research Centre, Kingston, ON, Canada.|CIHR Team in Child and Youth Injury Prevention, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
authors: William
authors: W
authors: Pickett
authors: Department of Public Health Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.|Kingston General Hospital Research Centre, Kingston, ON, Canada.|CIHR Team in Child and Youth Injury Prevention, Vancouver, BC, Canada; davisonc@queensu.ca.
authors: Colleen
authors: C
authors: Davison
mesh_terms: D000056:Accident Prevention / Q000379:methods*; D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D015873:Northwest Territories / Q000453:epidemiology; D044382:Population Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015995:Prevalence; D018570:Risk Assessment; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy
keywords: Aboriginal populations; Indigenous health; adolescent; alcohol policy; epidemiology; injury; northern health; population health