Trends in the leading causes of injury mortality, Australia, Canada and the United States, 2000-2014.
Posted Le 11 août 2017
Here are some highlights of an article looking at the differences and similarities between the United States, Canada and Australia when it comes to fall-related deaths:
Mack K; Clapperton A; Macpherson A; Sleet D; Newton D; Murdoch J. Trends in the leading causes of injury mortality, Australia, Canada and the United States, 2000-2014. The Free Library; 01 March 2017. Available from: https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Trends in the leading causes of injury mortality, Australia, Canada...-a0496643785.
Highlights:
This article was not only about fall-related deaths but also other causes of Injury Mortality between the three countries including
- All-cause Injury deaths
- Motor Vehicle Traffic-related deaths
- Unintentional Poisoning deaths
- Homicide deaths and suicide deaths
For the purpose of this article I will concentrate on the information about fall-related deaths.
This study of population-level trends was conducted between the years of 2000-2014 in the US and 2000-2012 in Canada and Australia. The authors chose to use “population-trends” because, “When the population is the unit of analysis, then systemic explanations for population-level injury rates can only be identified by comparing one population with another, because within a single population the overall injury rate is simply the consequence of the social system that population defines”.
There was no explanation as to the years chosen to study between the countries other than the datasets that were chosen to be studied. “The primary country of interest was the US, with Canada and Australia chosen as comparison countries given their close match to the US in terms of historical and cultural development” … “all three are high-income countries, covering large land masses, with motor vehicle-dependent rural-urban designs that have similar basic population demographics … centralized repositories for vital statistics data coded to injury using the same approach and same coding systems …”
The Fall Injury Age-Adjusted Mortality Rate for the US in 2000 was 4.8 with an increase to 8.7 in 2014, for Australia the rate was 3.1 in 2000 raising to 7.8 in 2012, and for Canada, the rate was 6.7 in 2000 and 10.8 in 2012.
If the above statements could be applied to the results of the study, then we could say, “The effect of these changes kept Australia and Canada moving at approximately the same rate of change but 30% apart, with the US starting closer to the Canadian rate and ending more closely approximate to the Australian rate”.
The authors’ sum up this comparison by saying, “nevertheless there was a 149% increase over the study time period”.
Even though this was an American study, it is safe to say that Canadian fall-related deaths are in line with the US and Australia, and that all three countries could do better.
What are your thoughts about these findings? How can these results be used in the Canadian context to further the issue of fall prevention? What are the implications for practice? Let’s continue this conversation. We would love to hear from you!