LOCAL INJURY INFORMATION, COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION AND INJURY REDUCTION

Better injury prevention is now a national health priority in Australi a. Applying the health promotion strategies of the Ottawa Charter to i njury prevention forms the basis of the World Health Organization's wo rldwide Safe Communities program. Taking such a community-focused appr oach has led to quantifiable reductions in injuries in several oversea s countries, particularly in Scandinavia where falls of up to 30 per c ent in particular injuries have been reported over a three-year period . In the Illawarra area of New South Wales, data from local hospital e mergency departments have been used as the basis for a 'community info rmation' strategy, in an attempt to replicate this overseas experience in an Australian setting. Reductions of 17 per cent in attendances by children for injuries (P < 0.001) and a 14 per cent fall in accident- related hospital admissions of children (not statistically significant ) have been observed over the course of the four-year intervention. Pr oblems of community definition and external confounding influences out side the control of the project make it difficult to confirm a causal relationship. However, community information forms one important compo nent in a comprehensive local injury-reduction strategy.