Incorporating the AIHW National Injury Surveillance Unit
NISU General Reports

NISU Publications, General Reports

NISU publishes injury surveillance development reports. Typically, these review the state of information about an injury topic, assess the demand for improvements and the feasibility of achieving them, and propose means for implementation. We also publish occasional reports on other topics.

Some of the reports listed below contain information which is time consuming to reproduce for publication on the World Wide Web. In some cases, an Executive Summary is provided - in others, just an abstract is provided. The full report will be made available as time permits - if you feel a particular report needs early attention, please send an email to NISU.


Coronial Information Systems: Needs And Feasibility Study. December 1994.
NISU has undertaken a feasibility study for the development of a National Coronial Information System. This item contains the report of that feasibility study. It shows that there is a need to develop a more consistent approach to coronial investigation and the classification and reporting of findings. It concludes that a NCIS is feasible and desirable and would improve the effectiveness and efficiency of coroners and the extraction of coronial data. The recommendations of the report have been accepted by Coroners and major data users. Implementation planning is continuing. (full report)

A Review of the Needs and Opportunities for the Surveillance of Spinal Cord Injury. February 1995.

Spinal cord injury is uncommon, but has great impact on the lives of the people who sustain it, and it is very costly. NISU has published a report on why and how surveillance of spinal cord injury in Australia might be undertaken. The report was written by Charles Blumer, at the Department of Public Health, University of Sydney.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Injury-Related Hositalisations 1991-92 June 1996
The injury patterns among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have not been well documented on a national basis. While there are difficulties with precision, it has been possible to identify key issues from hospitalisation data, to supplement our earlier work on deaths in Bulletin 7. In general rates for indigenous peoples are much higher than for their non indigenous counterparts. The patterns of injury are also different.
Study of Injury in Five Cape York Communities April 1997
This report covers the documentation of injury in some small remote indigenous communities on Cape York. It shows how a range of information gathering techniques can provide a profile of injury that complements existing data sets, identifies areas where under-counting is likely in those collections, and provides a rich basis for the planning of injury prevention strategies at the local and regional level.
Motor vehicle exhaust related suicide and self harm in Australia
This paper was prepared for discussion at a joint FORS and AMA meeting on the issue. It is presented as a discussion paper. Comments or leads to useful and relevant information would be appreciated by the author.
Burns Report
Needs and Opportunities for Improved Surveillance of Burns, by Peter O'Connor and Raymond Cripps.
Cost of Injury in Australia
Jerry Moller has used the methods of estimating the costs of injury to Victoria that were developed by the Monash University Accident Research Centre, and applied these to NISU data for the whole of Australia. This yielded the average cost of injury by major cause and age group.

In 1993, NISU was commissioned by the Commonwealth Department of Human Services and Health to provide information to help plan the implementation of national goals and targets for injury prevention and control. The information was published in 1994 as two reports.

Injury in Australia draws on the range of available information to provide an overview of the occurrence and impact of injury in Australia. Chapters consider injury in particular settings (transport, residential, non-urban areas, sports, work), from particular hazards (consumer products), and in terms of the role of human intent (interpersonal violence, suicide and other self-injury). The limited information available on injury in the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities was presented in another chapter.

The report was prepared by NISU in collaboration with the Monash University Accident Research Centre. It is available from the Australian Government Publishing Service.

Harrison, James E.; Cripps, Raymond A. Injury in Australia: an epidemiological review. Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service, 1994. (241 pages) ISBN 0 644 33394 4

The title of the other report, Injury Prevention and Control in Australia: a review of current programs and activities, indicates its contents. It provides an overview of the infrastructure, services and programs available (at the time it was written) for the identification, prevention, and treatment of injury and its long-term consequences. Chapters address: health promotion, surveillance and research programs; clinical management; rehabilitation services; and the contributions of sectors other than the health sector to the prevention of injury.

The report is available from the Australian Government Publishing Service.

Albany, Pam; Kreisfeld, Renate. Injury Prevention and Control in Australia: a review of current programs and activities. Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service, 1994. (57 pages)

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