Aboriginal Injury-related Hospitalisation 1991/92 - Interpretation of this report
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Interpretation of this report
The information presented in this report represents the best available
estimate of injury-related hospitalisation among Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples and non-Aboriginal people. The vagaries of the data may well
mean that some issues which are important are not clearly identified in this
report, while the apparent importance of some highlighted issues may prove to
have been inflated by the cumulative effects of data validity problems. It is
important that this be taken into consideration when interpreting the
information. Nonetheless, our opinion is that the information contained in this
report can be put to good use and it would be unwise to withhold these results
due to the underlying data definitional problems.
To summarise the limitations of the existing data, it is likely that the
results presented:
- generally underestimate the rate of injury-related hospitalisation among
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; significant underestimation is
likely for some specific causes of injury, such as violence for example;
- generally underestimate the rate ratios of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander injuries to those of non-Aboriginal people; some important exceptions
may occur for some specific causes of injury such as violence; and
- reflect cultural biases due to the nature of coding systems used.
The data presented in this report cannot be used as base-lines for
evaluation or for tasks that require accurate quantification. They are,
however, sufficient to:
- form a basis for discussions about the importance of the injury issue for
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
- guide the selection of priorities and development of initial policies for
injury prevention; and
- permit consideration of how the data could be improved.
The major purpose of this report is to indicate what is known about
injury occurrence among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples based on
existing data sources. It is clear that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people experience high rates of injury from a number of causes and across all
age groups. The available data show the significance of the problem and
highlight the need for a problem of this size and complexity to be adequately
monitored. Reviewers of earlier drafts of this report specifically asked that
the matter of improvement of data be raised. There is a need to:
- develop consistent and valid practices for identifying Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander peoples in hospital collections;
- establish accurate estimates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
populations by smaller geographic areas;
- use classification systems that permit culturally appropriate reporting of
injury among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
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