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ABSTRACT: The objective of this study was to examine bicycle-related injury rates for children living in urban and rural areas. Data on all Canadian children hospitalised because of bicycling-related injuries (1994-1998) were obtained from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). Injured children were classified as residing in urban, mixed urban, mixed rural or rural areas. Incidence rates for bicycle-related head injuries and other bicycle-related injuries were calculated. Logistic regression was used to estimate the odds of head injury, controlling for age, sex, socio-economic status (SES), collision with a motor vehicle, and the presence of provincial helmet legislation. In total, 9367 children were hospitalised for a bicycling-related injury over the 4-year-study period. Of these, 21% occurred in rural areas, 18% in mixed rural, 17% in mixed urban, while the remaining 44% occurred in urban areas. The average annual incidence rate for bicycle-related head injuries in children was 18.49 per 100000 for children living in rural areas compared with 10.93 per 100000 for those living in urban areas, 15.49 for children in mixed urban areas and 17.38 for children living in mixed rural areas. This variation may be explained by differences in bicycling exposure, helmet use, hospital admission criteria, or road environments across geographic areas.
Accident Analysis & Prevention 08/2004; 36(4):649-54. · 1.87 Impact Factor
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David L Buckeridge,
Robin Mason,
Ann Robertson,
John Frank,
Richard Glazier,
Lorraine Purdon,
Carl G Amrhein,
Nita Chaudhuri,
Esme Fuller-Thomson,
Peter Gozdyra,
David Hulchanski, Byron Moldofsky,
Maureen Thompson,
Robert Wright
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ABSTRACT: This paper presents the main findings from a collaborative community/university research project in Canada. The goal of the project was to improve access to community health information, and in so doing, enhance our knowledge of the development of community health information resources and community/university collaboration. The project built on a rich history of community/university collaboration in Southeast Toronto (SETO), and employed an interdisciplinary applied research and action design. Specific project objectives were to: (1) develop via active community/university collaboration a geographic information system (GIS) for ready access to routinely collected health data, and to study logistical, conceptual and technical problems encountered during system development; and (2) to document and analyze issues that can emerge in the process of community/university research collaboration. System development involved iteration through community user assessment of need, development or refinement of the GIS, and assessment of the GIS by community users. Collaborative process assessment entailed analysis of archival material, interviews with investigators and participant observation. Over the course of the project, a system was successfully developed, and favorably assessed by users. System development problems fell into four main areas: maintaining user involvement in system development, understanding and integrating data, bringing disparate data sources together, and making use of assembled data. Major themes emerging from the community/university collaborative research process included separate community and university cultures, time as an important issue for all involved, and the impact of uncertainty and ambiguity on the collaborative process.
Social Science [?] Medicine 11/2002; 55(7):1189-206. · 2.70 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The objective of this study was to examine bicycle-related injury rates for children living in urban and rural areas. Data on all Canadian children hospitalised because of bicycling-related injuries (1994–1998) were obtained from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). Injured children were classified as residing in urban, mixed urban, mixed rural or rural areas. Incidence rates for bicycle-related head injuries and other bicycle-related injuries were calculated. Logistic regression was used to estimate the odds of head injury, controlling for age, sex, socio-economic status (SES), collision with a motor vehicle, and the presence of provincial helmet legislation.In total, 9367 children were hospitalised for a bicycling-related injury over the 4-year-study period. Of these, 21% occurred in rural areas, 18% in mixed rural, 17% in mixed urban, while the remaining 44% occurred in urban areas. The average annual incidence rate for bicycle-related head injuries in children was 18.49 per 100,000 for children living in rural areas compared with 10.93 per 100,000 for those living in urban areas, 15.49 for children in mixed urban areas and 17.38 for children living in mixed rural areas. This variation may be explained by differences in bicycling exposure, helmet use, hospital admission criteria, or road environments across geographic areas.
Accident Analysis & Prevention.
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ABSTRACT: In the recent years respiratory health has become one of the most burning concerns for many health professionals in large urban centres including Toronto, Canada. Increasing levels of air pollution, polarized socioeconomic status among inner city dwellers and various levels of health service provision are only a few of many factors that are assumed to have a strong impact on respiratory health. These facts are usually well known to researchers, physicians and other experts in the area of public health. However, groups and individuals that could apply this knowledge in the domain of public advocacy and health promotion often lack such information. An additional difficulty arises from the fact that most of the patient data in Canada is confidential, hence access to it is limited to a narrow group of health professional and academics. This paper describes a successful pilot project bringing health information to several community organizations and hospitals in the form of a mappable spatial database. The use of GIS tools and display of relevant data on maps proved to be a successful method of communicating health information and, at the same time, provided means to overcome the strict limits placed upon the release of patient data in a numeric format. An extensive examination of available data and mapping techniques was undertaken by a group of academics, community members and health service providers to objectively represent spatial phenomena that determine and indicate the status of public health in Southeast Toronto. The product of this teamwork has been delivered to groups and individuals engaged in health promotion at the local community level. The database and the custom mapping software received a complimentary welcome at various locations where it was utilized.
