Data sources
As there is no one place to collect all injury data, you will need to allow time at the beginning of the project/program to gather the data you need.
Data collection is a valuable but time consuming process. To make this process more efficient, it may be worth forming a small data committee with a representative from each local organisation involved. Each organisation could then be responsible for collating a brief report from the data they collect about local falls and fall related injury. Try to standardise and compare the data as much as possible.
Suggested sources of international, Australian and Queensland falls and injury information are listed below.
International
World Health Organization (WHO):
Australian
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
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The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare is Australia's national agency for health and welfare statistics. The website contains information for children and youth, indigenous people, hospitals, expenditure and a range of injury topics. There is also publications, online data and a media centre.
Australian Bureau of Statistics
National Injury Surveillance Unit
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The National Injury Surveillance Unit (NISU) is based at Flinders University Research Centre for Injury Studies, South Australia. NISU analyses and reports on injury data, develops information sources and provides advice and support to those working with injury related matters. One of their latest reports (released May 2007) was on fall-related hospitalisations among older people focusing on sociocultural and regional aspects.
There are a number of Australian research studies that have used representative samples and may be worth examining. These studies include the Dubbo study by Lord, the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ALSA) study by Dolinis and the Health Status of Older People (HSOP) study by Kendig, Browning et al.
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Queensland
Queensland Health Information Centre
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Queensland Health Information Centre provides a client focused library service, central data, information collection and retrieval facility for the processing and dissemination of corporate and other health data to internal and external clients of the department. The Centre is a central reference service for information enquiries and also conducts valued-added statistical and epidemiological analysis.
Queensland Health's Central Library Services
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Queensland Health's Central Library Services provides a range of cost effective information products and services to onsite and remote clients. A recent report of interest is the
Chief Health Officer Report.
Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit
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The Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit (QISU) collects injury data from a number of hospital emergency departments on behalf of Queensland Health with the support of the Mater Health Services, Brisbane.
QISU currently collects data in 16 hospitals across Queensland including three sample regions:
- metropolitan (Brisbane)
- regional (Mackay and Moranbah)
- remote (Mount Isa).
Data from Emergency Department presentations can help to further understand injuries. QISU also develops Injury Bulletins that review injuries related to different topics and age groups, and are especially useful for further information about specific child injuries.
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