The incidence of public sector hospitalisations due to dog bites in Australia 2001–2013

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Author(s)
Rajshekar, Mithun
Blizzard, Leigh
Julian, Roberta
Williams, Anne-Marie
Tennant, Marc
Forrest, Alex
Walsh, Laurence J
Wilson, Gary
Year published
2017
Metadata
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Objective: To estimate the incidence of dog bite-related injuries requiring public sector hospitalisation in Australia during the period 2001–13.
Methods: Summary data on public sector hospitalisations due to dog bite-related injuries with an ICD 10-AM W54.0 coding were sourced from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare for the study period 2001–2013.
Results: In Australia, on average, 2,061 persons were hospitalised each year for treatment for dog bite injuries at an annual rate of 12.39 (95%CI 12.25–12.53) per 100,000 during 2001–13. The highest annual rates of 25.95 (95%CI 25.16–26.72) and 18.42 (95%CI 17.75–19.07) ...
View more >Objective: To estimate the incidence of dog bite-related injuries requiring public sector hospitalisation in Australia during the period 2001–13. Methods: Summary data on public sector hospitalisations due to dog bite-related injuries with an ICD 10-AM W54.0 coding were sourced from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare for the study period 2001–2013. Results: In Australia, on average, 2,061 persons were hospitalised each year for treatment for dog bite injuries at an annual rate of 12.39 (95%CI 12.25–12.53) per 100,000 during 2001–13. The highest annual rates of 25.95 (95%CI 25.16–26.72) and 18.42 (95%CI 17.75–19.07) per 100,000 were for age groups 0–4 and 5–9 years respectively. Rates of recorded events increased over the study period and reached 16.15 (95%CI 15.78–16.52) per 100,000 during 2011–13. Conclusion: Dog bites are a largely unrecognised and growing public health problem in Australia. Implications for public health: There is an increasing public sector burden of hospitalisations for injuries from dog bites in Australia.
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View more >Objective: To estimate the incidence of dog bite-related injuries requiring public sector hospitalisation in Australia during the period 2001–13. Methods: Summary data on public sector hospitalisations due to dog bite-related injuries with an ICD 10-AM W54.0 coding were sourced from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare for the study period 2001–2013. Results: In Australia, on average, 2,061 persons were hospitalised each year for treatment for dog bite injuries at an annual rate of 12.39 (95%CI 12.25–12.53) per 100,000 during 2001–13. The highest annual rates of 25.95 (95%CI 25.16–26.72) and 18.42 (95%CI 17.75–19.07) per 100,000 were for age groups 0–4 and 5–9 years respectively. Rates of recorded events increased over the study period and reached 16.15 (95%CI 15.78–16.52) per 100,000 during 2011–13. Conclusion: Dog bites are a largely unrecognised and growing public health problem in Australia. Implications for public health: There is an increasing public sector burden of hospitalisations for injuries from dog bites in Australia.
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Journal Title
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health
Volume
41
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2017. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modications or adaptations are made.
Subject
Public Health and Health Services not elsewhere classified
Public Health and Health Services
Applied Economics
Policy and Administration