Incidence And Costs Of Injury In Western Australia 2012

Quantifying the costs associated with injuries is important. The previous study estimating costs of injury in Western Australia (WA) was in 2003. This report builds upon the previous report and describes the overall burden of injury in WA. To estimate the incidence and costs of injury in WA in 2012 with comparisons made with equivalent data for 2003. Incidence and corresponding costs are stratified across multiple dimensions including by sociodemographic factors, regions, types of injury and alcohol involvement. Data was drawn from linked administrative health data and personal injury claims data. Incidence counts were based on injury events, with episodes of care relating to a specific injury combined into a single event. Costs were calculated using an incidence based approach computed by assessing the lifetime costs of all injuries in a given year. In 2012, the number of injury events in WA was 2 27 000 (93 injuries per 1000 population). Total lifetime costs of these injuries was AU$9.6 billion. Health sector costs accounted for 12.3% of total costs, long term care costs for 3.2%, loss of paid productivity for 19.8%, and loss of quality of life for 64.7%. Males had a higher rate of injury than females and accounted for 63% of total injury costs. Aboriginal people comprise 3.6% of the total population, yet accounted for 7.7% of total injury costs. This report and the linked data used to produce it has helped improve planning and policy development, while also being a useful advocacy tool to promote the importance of injury prevention. A number of seminars have been conducted over 2017 and 2018 looking at specific injury types and population groups.