Cervical spinal cord injury in rugby union and rugby league: are incidence rates declining in NSW?

Objectives: To estimate trends in incidence rates of rugby code-related severe cervical spinal cord injuries in New South Wales (NSW) from 1986 to 2003. To evaluate the Australian Spinal Cord Injury Register (ASCIR) for injury surveillance by comparison with two published studies.

Methods: Data were cases of complete and incomplete tetraplegia in rugby union and rugby league admitted to the two spinal units in NSW.

Prediction of distal radius fracture in children, using a biomechanical impact model and case-control data on playground free falls.

Objectives: To assess the ability of a biomechanical impact model to predict the likelihood of distal radius fracture in children using data gathered for a previous epidemiological case-control study of falls from playground equipment.

Methodology: Factor of Risk (FR) values were generated for each of selected subjects from the case-control study using a biomechanical model. Logistic regression curves were fitted to examine the relationship between the FR values and the probability of radius fracture.

Minimum purchasing age for alcohol and traffic crash injuries among 15- to 19-year-olds in New Zealand.

Objectives: In 1999, New Zealand lowered the minimum purchasing age for alcohol from 20 to 18 years. We tested the hypothesis that this increased traffic crash injuries among 15- to 19-year-olds.

Methods: Poisson regression was used to compute incidence rate ratios for the after to before incidence of alcohol-involved crashes and hospitalized injuries among 18- to 19-year-olds and 15- to 17-year-olds (20- to 24-year-olds were the reference).

Computerised screening for hazardous drinking in primary care.

Introduction: Brief interventions undertaken in primary care settings have been shown consistently to reduce hazardous drinking, but they are not commonly offered in practice. The aims were to determine the uptake by young people of an offer of screening in a primary care setting; to identify patients' drinking risk levels; and to estimate the proportion who would consent to computerised brief intervention and follow-up.

Methods: Participants were 1120 patients attending a university student health service that were invited for screening while in the waiting room.

Drink-driving and perceptions of legally permissible alcohol use.

Objective: The leading cause of death for young people in developed countries is road traffic crashes, a large proportion of which are attributable to drink-driving. The aims of the study were to estimate the prevalence of drink-driving and drink-riding in a sample of New Zealand university students, and to identify potential risk factors, in particular, students' perceptions of legally permissible consumption before driving.

Methods: Participants were 1,564 survey respondents (82% response, mean age = 20.

Episode-centred analysis of drinking to intoxication in university students.

Aims: To demonstrate the use of an internet-based retrospective diary to measure intoxication and to describe the epidemiology of intoxication in a university community.

Methods: A probability sample of 1564 New Zealand university students completed an Internet-based survey (82% response), including a retrospective diary in which the volume consumed on each of the preceding seven days and the duration of each episode were recorded, along with the respondent's gender, weight, and their typical quantity/frequency of consumption, as a measure of tolerance. These parameters were used to compute an estimated blood alcohol concentration (EBAC) for each episode.

Effects of service delivery versus changes in incidence on trends in injury: a demonstration using hospitalised traumatic brain injury.

Though injury incidence and hospitalisations are likely to be correlated, a range of factors other than incidence of injury in a population may influence trends in hospitalised injuries. These include technical changes in the hospital data's coverage, and real changes in the incidence of hospitalisations independent of the population incidence. This paper addresses the latter using the example of traumatic brain injury (TBI) hospitalisations in New Zealand.

Assessment of nonresponse bias in an internet survey of alcohol use.

Background: Decreasing survey response rates are a growing concern in epidemiological research, principally because prevalence estimates may be biased by selective nonresponse. Internet-based methods have the potential to yield higher-quality data with lower nonresponse rates and at a lower cost than traditional methods. Little research exists on nonresponse bias in Internet surveys of alcohol use.

Motor vehicle traffic crashes involving Maori.

Aims: To provide a descriptive epidemiology of fatal and non-fatal motor vehicle traffic (MVT) crashes involving Maori (1980-1994 inclusive) and to describe factors associated with those crashes.

Methods: A data set for 1980-1994 was created by linking: (1) the New Zealand Police traffic crash reports (providing crash details), and (2) the New Zealand Health Information Services (NZHIS) hospital inpatient and mortality files (providing ethnicity, other demographic and injury details).

Results: The linked data set contained 8178 MVT crash events involving 8273 vehicles/drivers in which there were 9288 Maori casualties.

Measuring road traffic safety performance: monitoring trends in nonfatal injury.

Traditional indicators used to monitor trends in nonfatal injury are influenced by a range of factors other than the incidence of injury. Indicators based on threat-to-life scales offer a means of addressing this problem. The aim of the research described in this article was to compare trends in the official indicators with trends in selected threat-to-life indicators.

Identifying factors that predict persistent driving after drinking, unsafe driving after drinking, and driving after using cannabis among young adults.

Unlabelled: The main aim of this study was to identify adolescent/young adulthood factors that predicted persistent driving after drinking, persistent unsafe driving after drinking, and persistent cannabis use and driving among young adults. It was a longitudinal study of a birth cohort (n=933, 474 males and 459 females) and was based on data collected at ages 15, 18, 21 and 26 years. At each of these ages members of the cohort attended the research unit for a personal interview by a trained interviewer, using a standardised questionnaire.

Graduated driver licensing: the New Zealand experience.

In New Zealand, on 1 August 1987, a three-stage graduated driver licensing (GDL) system that applied to all new drivers aged 15-24 years was introduced. The essential elements of GDL were a 6-month learner license (supervised driving) and an 18-month restricted license stage (with restrictions on night driving and carrying passengers). A blood alcohol limit of 0.

Comparing measures of injury severity for use with large databases.

Background: After recent debate about the best measure of anatomic injury severity, this study aimed to compare four measures based on Abbreviated Injury Scale scores derived using ICDMAP-90-the Modified Anatomic Profile (ICD/mAP), Anatomic Profile Score (ICD/APS), Injury Severity Score (ICD/ISS), and New Injury Severity Score (ICD/NISS)-with the International Classification of Diseases-based Injury Severity Score (ICISS).

Methods: Data were selected from New Zealand public hospital discharges from 1989 to 1998. There were 349,409 patients in the dataset, of whom 3,871 had died.