Esterman, Adrian, Thompson, Fintan, Fitts, Michelle, Gilroy, John, Fleming, Jennifer, Maruff, Paul, Clough, Alan, and Bohanna, India (2018) Incidence of emergency department presentations for traumatic brain injury in Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents aged 15–64 over the 9-year period 2007–2015 in North Queensland, Australia. Injury Epidemiology, 5. 40.

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Abstract

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of disability worldwide. Previous studies have shown that males have a higher incidence than females, and Indigenous populations have a higher rate than non-Indigenous. To date, no study has compared the incidence rate of TBI between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians for any cause. Here we add to this rather sparse literature.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of data from North Queensland Emergency Departments between 2007 and 2015 using Australian Bureau of Statistics population estimates for North Queensland residents aged 15–64 years as denominator data. Outcome measures include incidence rate ratios (IRR) for TBI presentations by Indigenous status, age, sex, year of presentation, remoteness, and socio-economic indicator.

Results: Overall incidence of TBI presentations per 100,000 population was 97.8. Indigenous people had an incidence of 166.4 compared to an incidence in the non-Indigenous population of 86.3, providing an IRR of 1.93 (95% CI 1.77–2.10; p < 0.001). Males were 2.29 (95% CI 2.12–2.48; p < 0.001) times more likely to present than females. Incidence increased with year of presentation only in the Indigenous male population.

Conclusions: The greater burden of ED presentations for TBI in the Indigenous compared with the non-Indigenous population is of concern. Importantly, the need to provide quality services and support to people living with TBI in remote and very remote areas, and the major role of the new National Disability Insurance Scheme is discussed.

Item ID:	57355
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2197-1714
Keywords:	epidemiology; head injury; rural; remote
Copyright Information:	© The Author(s). 2018 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Funders:	National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
Projects and Grants:	NHMRC Grant 1081947
Date Deposited:	08 Mar 2019 06:24
FoR Codes:	45 INDIGENOUS STUDIES > 4504 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing > 450417 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander public health and wellbeing @ 100%
SEO Codes:	92 HEALTH > 9203 Indigenous Health > 920302 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health - Health Status and Outcomes @ 100%
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