Incidents occurring outside the state road system, such as in forests or on farms on residential properties, were deemed to be “off road”.
Information was collected on basic demographics, incident location, and mechanism and details of injuries sustained. This study was approved as an audit by the RCH ethics committee.Įligible patients were identified from the databases using keyword searches with the terms “motorbike”, “motorcycle”, “mini bike”, “peewee”, “quad bike”, “trail bike”, and “dirt bike”, including spelling variations. A single dedicated, trained data manager collects the information based on a review of clinical notes. Second, we reviewed the RCH Trauma Registry, which identifies all trauma admissions to the RCH. The Unit also supplied information about the total number of motorcycle-related deaths (inhospital and prehospital) in Victoria from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Data from this database were provided by the Victorian Injury Surveillance Unit, a long-term project of the Monash University Accident Research Centre. Data for this study were collated from two prospective databases.įirst, we queried the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD), 14 which contains detailed injury records accounting for about 80% of all ED presentations statewide. We conducted a retrospective analysis of motorcycle-associated injuries to identify paediatric patients (aged 16 years or younger) requiring ED treatment in Victoria or inpatient admission to the RCH between 1 July 2000 and 30 June 2004. The overall aim was to provide epidemiological and burden of injury data in order to increase public awareness, inform injury prevention programs, and encourage legislative action. We set out to quantify this anecdotal increase in motorcycle-related injuries by reviewing both emergency department (ED) presentations across Victoria, and detailed trauma registry data from its sole paediatric major trauma centre. However, there is currently no legislation covering children and adolescents riding on private property or off road, and injury prevention efforts are limited. 12, 13 In Australia, it is not legal for children to ride motorcycles on public roads other than as pillion passengers. 5 - 11 In the United States and Canada, these trends have recently prompted recommendations for interventions, including legislative changes. Increasing presentations of motorcycle injuries in children and adolescents have been reported in Australia 1 - 4 and internationally.
At the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH), Melbourne (the only paediatric major trauma service in the state of Victoria), we noticed that more patients were presenting after motorcycle crashes, and that children as young as 5 years were being injured while riding these vehicles. R iding motorcycles (including mini bikes, quad bikes and trail bikes) is a popular sport among children and adolescents in Australia. There is an urgent need for coordinated legislative changes and educational efforts to decrease motorcycle injuries in children. Most of these injuries occur off road, outside of any legislative framework. At the RCH, median length of stay was 3 days (interquartile range, 1–7 days) and the median Injury Severity Score was 9 (IQR, 4–10) 41% of patients required an operation, 13% were admitted to an intensive care unit, and two died.Ĭonclusion: In Victoria, the incidence of motorcycle-related injuries is increasing in children and adolescents. About a quarter of paediatric motorcycle accidents occurred in children aged under 10 years (VEMD, 22% RCH, 27%) and most occurred off road (VEMD,89% RCH, 71%). In the same period, there was a total of 167 motorcycle-related admissions to the RCH, increasing annually in line with statewide ED presentations. Results: The VEMD recorded 3163 patients aged ≤ 16 years presenting to EDs with motorcycle injuries during the study period population-based rates of these injuries increased by an average of 9.6% per year (95% CI, 6.2%–13.1% P < 0.005). Main outcome measures: Trends in paediatric motorcycle-related injuries over time patient demographics, circumstances of accidents (on or off road), and injury characteristics, including severity markers. Objective: To quantify an anecdotally apparent increase in motorcycle-related injuries in children and adolescents across Victoria.ĭesign, setting and participants: Retrospective analysis of paediatric motorcycle injuries (1 July 2000 – 30 June 2004) from a statewide emergency department (ED) database (Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset ) and the Trauma Registry database at the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH), Melbourne.
Statistics,epidemiology and research design.Statistics, epidemiology and research design.
0 kommentar(er)
