Impact of injury in regional WA
Between July 2017 and June 2018 there were 12,696 injury-related hospitalisations to individuals living in regional and remote WA, with falls (n=3,810), transport (n=1,638) and assault (n=1,233) being the leading causes of hospitalisation.1
During this 12 month period there were also 361 injury-related fatalities to individuals living in regional and remote WA.1 Intentional self-harm (n=97), falls (n=85) and transport-related injuries (n=75) were the leading causes of these injury-related fatalities.1
Within WA there are ten health regions; Goldfields, Great Southern, Kimberley, Midwest, Pilbara, South West, Wheatbelt, East Metropolitan, North Metropolitan and South Metropolitan. For an overview of the different Health Regions in WA, click here.
In 2019, the Kimberley (11,026 per 100,000 population), Midwest (5,993) and Goldfields (5,391) regions of WA experienced the highest rates of injury-related hospitalisation.2 As displayed below in Table 1 the rate of hospitalisation also varied by injury topic.
Table 1. The WA Health Regions with the highest injury hospitalisation rate across seven injury areas in 2015-2019.2 The hospitalisation rate provided in the bracket is the age-standardised rate per 100,000 person years.
| Highest hospitalisation rate | Second highest hospitalisation rate | Third highest hospitalisation rate | |
| Falls | Kimberley (1,925.9) | Midwest (1,183.1) | Wheatbelt (1,125.0) |
| Transport | Kimberley (528.8) | Wheatbelt (484.5) | Midwest (409.9) |
| Drowning | Kimberley (73.6) | Goldfields (51.9) | Wheatbelt (46.2) |
| Assault | Kimberley (1,884.2) | Pilbara (490.0) | Midwest (308.4) |
| Self-harm | Kimberley (433.1) | Great Southern (257.2) | Wheatbelt (224.7) |
| Burns and Scalds | Kimberley (176.1) | Midwest (74.2) | Pilbara (71.5) |
| Poisoning | Kimberley (248.0) | Midwest (125.5) | Wheatbelt (118.1) |
Injury Prevention in regional WA:
Many organisations conduct injury prevention initiatives which aim to prevent injury throughout WA, however there are some resources and projects which prevent injuries within specific regional populations.
Injury prevention projects in regional WA include;
- Build youth confidence and esteem.
- Increases community connectedness.
- Increases awareness of suicide prevention.
- Remote Aboriginal Swimming Pools Project.
- Increases swimming and water safety skills.
- Improves health and social outcomes.
- Increases driver safety knowledge.
- Increases skills to driver safety on dangerous roads.
Key injury prevention stakeholders in regional WA
Click here to find injury prevention organisations in your region.
Download Injury Matters regional focused resources
Other Resources
- AIHW, Geographical analysis of hospitalised injury and injury deaths data
- Kidsafe WA Childhood Injury Bulletins
- Royal Life Saving WA, drowning statistics
- The WA Centre for Rural Health
- WA Department of Health, Incidence and Costs of Injury in WA 2012
- WA Road Safety Commission, regional road crash statistics
References:
- Australian Institute Of Health And Welfare. Geographical analysis of hospitalised injury and injury deaths data, 2017–18, Data. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/injury/geographical-analysis-injury-data/data (2021).
- Data generated using HealthTracks Reporting, by the Epidemiology Branch, WA Department of Health in collaboration with the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRC-SI), March 2021
- Hendrie, D., Miller, T., Randall, S., Brameld, K. & Moorin, R. Incidence and costs of injury in WA 2012. (2016).
