Hospitalisation due to sports-related injuries among children and adolescents in New South Wales, Australia: An analysis on socioeconomic and geographic differences

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This population-based epidemiological study aims to investigate the associations between socioeconomic status, geographic location, and sports-related injuries among children and adolescents in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Data utilised in this study were collected as part of the routine vital health information system via all hospitals in NSW. Included were all patients aged between 5-19 years admitted to a hospital because of sports-related injuries in NSW between 1996 and 2000. The crude age-and-sex-specific hospitalisation rates (/100,000 population-years) by socioeconomic levels and geographic residential locations were calculated. Negative Binomial regression analyses were also performed to examine the associations between socioeconomic status, geographic location and the rate of hospitalisation after adjusting for the age and sex of children and adolescents. The results indicated a significant association between geographic location and hospitalisation due to sports-related injury, after adjusting for age, sex, and socioeconomic status. The risk of hospital admission with sports-related injury among children and adolescents in rural areas was nearly 10% higher than for those in the metropolitan areas (RR=1.12, 95%C.I.=1.07−1.32)). However, no association between socioeconomic status and hospitalisation with sports-related injury was found. Greater efforts are required in the implementation of safety strategies in research, training, and education for the prevention of sports-related injury in rural areas.

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Cited by (9)

  • Sport/leisure injury hospitalisation rates-Evidence for an excess burden in remote areas

    2009, Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport
    Citation Excerpt :

    The differential is important because people from remote areas have reduced access to health facilities14 and are less likely to be hospitalised as a result of injury, compared to other people.15–17 These ARIA findings are stronger than those reported by Lam amongst children in NSW,5 perhaps because we included adults and examined trends across five ARIA levels, rather than just making an urban/rural comparison. Without further relevant information, which was unavailable in our datasets, the reasons for these trends are not clear but one possibility could be differences in sport/leisure infrastructure and opportunities across regions.

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