Rebecca Mitchell

• BA (Psych) MA (Psych) MOHS PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Macquarie University

Background Data about the ongoing health service use, health outcomes and healthcare treatment costs of adult cochlear implant users are limited. This study examined health service use, health outcomes and treatment costs of adults who had a cochlear implant. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study of adults aged ≥ 18 years who received a co...

Introduction: Some individuals over their life course will experience significant health-related events, such as a physical or mental illness, that can alter their life pathways or trajectories, known as “turning-point” events. This systematic review aimed to synthesize the evidence from population-based data collections for: (a) parent health-rela...

Background/Objectives: Evidence-based guidelines and care standards recommend offering oral nutrition supplements to all older adults with hip fracture, not just those already malnourished. This study aimed to identify the proportion of inpatients in a sample of hospitals in two countries that were provided with oral nutritional supplementation (ON...

Objectives: To determine whether adherence to hip fracture clinical care quality indicators influences mortality among people who undergo surgery after hip fracture in New South Wales, both overall and by individual indicator. Study design: Retrospective population-based study; analysis of linked Australian and New Zealand Hip Fracture Registry...

Objectives To examine the costs and predictors of high hospital use and criminal reoffending in adults experiencing homelessness. ApproachRetrospective cohort study of 2,140 adults who attended homeless hostel clinics in New South Wales, Australia using linked clinic, health, criminal offence, and mortality data from 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2021. Mu...

Objective Describe patterns of substance use and comorbid conditions among clinic attenders in homeless shelters in Sydney. Method Retrospective cohort study of 2498 people who attended a psychiatric clinic at one of three homeless hostels between February 2008 and May 2020. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify factors associated...

Objectives Unwarranted clinical variations in radical prostatectomy (RP) procedures are frequently reported, yet less attention is given to the variations in associated costs. This issue can further widen disparities in access to care and provoke questions about the overall value of the procedure. The present paper aimed to delve into the dispariti...

Background Patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) are used to drive and evaluate unit and organisational-level healthcare improvement, but also at a population level, these measures can be key indicators of healthcare quality. Current evidence indicates that ethnically diverse communities frequently experience poorer care quality and outcomes...

Background This study estimated the prevalence of evidence-based care received by a population-based sample of Australian residents in long-term care (LTC) aged ≥ 65 years in 2021, measured by adherence to clinical practice guideline (CPG) recommendations. Methods Sixteen conditions/processes of care amendable to estimating evidence-based care at...

Background Out of pocket (OOP) costs vary substantially by health condition, procedure, provider, and service location. Evidence of whether this variation is associated with indicators of healthcare quality and/or health outcomes is lacking. Methods The current review aimed to explore whether higher OOP costs translate into better healthcare quali...

Aim: To examine the impact of concussion on objective measures of school performance. Materials & methods: Population-based matched cohort study using linked health and education records of young people aged ≤18 years hospitalized with concussion in New South Wales, Australia, during 2005-2018, and matched comparisons not hospitalized with any i...

Background Hearing loss can have a negative impact on individuals’ health and engagement with social activities. Integrated approaches that tackle barriers and social outcomes could mitigate some of these effects for cochlear implants (CI) users. This review aims to synthesise the evidence of the impact of a CI on adults’ health service utilisation...

Background: As their health declines, many older adults require additional care and move to residential aged care facilities. Despite efforts to reduce it, variation persists in care quality at the end-of-life (EOL) between facilities. Indicators to monitor care variation are therefore required. This rapid systematic review aims to identify popula...

Despite widespread acknowledgement of challenges endured by unpaid caregivers, there is still a paucity of studies attempting to elucidate factors that necessitate resilience in caregiving. This integrative review aimed to identify facilitators and barriers to unpaid caregivers’ resilience. Four databases (Medline, PsycINFO, Cumulative Index of Nur...

Background: There are not many longitudinal studies examining people experiencing homelessness and interacting with the criminal justice system over time. Aims: To describe the type of criminal offences committed, court outcomes, identify probable predictors of reoffending, and estimate the criminal justice costs in a cohort of homeless hostel c...

Objective To report on the rate and causes of mortality, and associations with premature mortality among the homeless in inner city Sydney. Method Retrospective cohort study of 2,498 people who attended a psychiatric clinic conducted at the three main homeless hostels between 17 February 2008 and 19 May 2020. Cox’s proportional hazards regression...

Unlabelled: Pharmacological management of bone health warrants investigation into factors influencing initiation of bone protection medication (BPM) at discharge after a hip fracture. This sprint audit identified reasons attributed to low BPM treatment levels at hospital discharge which can guide improvement in the prevention of future fractures....

Background To inform healthcare planning and resourcing, population-level information is required on the use of health services among young people with a mental disorder. This study aims to identify the health service use associated with mental disorders among young people using a population-level matched cohort. Method A population-based matched...

Introduction: While the majority of adults with severe-to-profound hearing loss and poor speech perception outcomes with hearing aids benefit from receiving a cochlear implant, the long-term health and social benefits for implant recipients are yet to be explored. The objective of the ARCHS research is to provide a better understanding of the heal...

Objective: To describe the characteristics and cost of health service use of a cohort of 2,140 people attending homeless hostel clinics, and identify predictors of high health service use and time to readmission. Method: A retrospective cohort study of 2,140 adults who attended a homeless hostel clinic and were hospitalised in New South Wales (N...

Background: Burn injuries can have a detrimental impact on a young person’s health and social development, which may affect their academic performance. This study aimed to compare academic performance and high school completion of young people hospitalised for a burn compared to young people not hospitalised for an injury. Methods: A population-bas...

PurposeTo describe the characteristics of major injury and identify determinants of long-term unplanned readmission and mortality after self-inflicted and non-self-inflicted injury to inform potential readmission screening.MethodA retrospective cohort study of 11,269 individuals aged ≥ 15 years hospitalised for a major injury during 2013–2017 in Ne...

Background Children and young people who sustain injuries resulting in a hospital admission may experience adverse effects for months or years following the event. Understanding the attributable burden and health service needs is vital for public health planning as well as individual care provision. This study aims to identify the hospitalised morb...

Objectives: To compare academic performance and high school completion of young people admitted to hospital with epilepsy and matched peers from the general population not admitted to hospital with epilepsy during the study period. Methods: A population-based matched case-comparison cohort study of young people aged ≤18 years hospitalised with epil...

Background: The impact of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) on academic performance is inconclusive. This study aims to compare scholastic performance and high school completion in young people hospitalised with T1D compared to matched peers not hospitalised with diabetes. Method: A population-level matched case-comparison study of people aged ≤18...

Aim: This study aims to identify the hospitalised morbidity associated with three common chronic health conditions among young people using a population-based matched cohort. Methods: A population-level matched case-comparison retrospective cohort study of young people aged ≤18 years hospitalised with asthma, type 1 diabetes (T1D) or epilepsy du...

Background With the increasing use of mobile technology, ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) may enable routine monitoring of patient health outcomes and patient experiences of care by health agencies. This rapid review aims to synthesise the evidence on the use of EMAs to monitor health outcomes after traumatic unintentional injury. Method A...

Background: People who live in aged care homes have high rates of illness and frailty. Providing evidence-based care to this population is vital to ensure the highest possible quality of life. This study (CareTrack Aged, CT Aged) aimed to develop a comprehensive set of clinical indicators for guideline-adherent, appropriate care of commonly manage...

Purpose To synthesise the evidence on the impact of pre-operative direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) on health outcomes for patients who sustain a hip fracture. Method A rapid systematic review of three databases (MEDLINE, Embase and Scopus) for English-language articles from January 2000 to August 2021 was conducted. Abstracts and full text were...

Background Emerging adulthood is a distinct segment of an individual’s life course. The defining features of this transitional period include identity exploration, instability, future possibilities, self-focus, and feeling in-between, all of which are thought to affect quality of life, health, and well-being. A longitudinal cohort study with a comp...

Background The majority of paediatric injury outcomes studies focus on mortality rather than the impact on long-term quality of life, health care use and other health-related outcomes. This study sought to determine predictors of 12-month functional and psychosocial outcomes for children sustaining major injury in NSW. Methods The study included a...

Background Young people with a mental disorder often perform poorly at school and can fail to complete high school. This study aims to compare scholastic performance and high school completion of young people hospitalised with a mental disorder compared to young people not hospitalised for a mental disorder health condition by gender. Method A pop...

People with disabilities are often subject to intersecting layers of social and economic disadvantage and other barriers that drive health inequity. As a result, they frequently experience worse health than people without disabilities, beyond the direct effects of their health condition or impairment. The aim of this overview of systematic reviews...

Background Exploring the impact of injury and injury severity on academic outcomes could assist to identify characteristics of young people likely to require learning support services. This study aims to compare scholastic performance and high school completion of young people hospitalised for an injury compared to young people not hospitalised for...

Background There is inconclusive evidence of the effect of asthma on the academic performance of young people. This study aims to compare scholastic performance and high school completion of young people hospitalised with asthma compared to matched peers not hospitalised with asthma. Method A population-based matched case-comparison cohort study o...

Background An existing hospital avoidance program, the Aged Care Rapid Response Team (ARRT), rapidly delivers geriatric outreach services to acutely unwell or older people with declining health at risk of hospitalisation. The aim of the current study was to explore health professionals’ perspectives on the factors impacting ARRT utilisation in the...

Objective Presentations to EDs for major paediatric injury are considerably lower than for adults. International studies report lower levels of critical intervention, including intubation, required in injured children. A New South Wales study demonstrated an adverse event rate of 7.6% in children with major injury. Little is known about the care an...

BACKGROUND Emerging adulthood is a distinct segment of an individual’s life course. The defining features of this transitional period include identity exploration, instability, future possibilities, self-focus, and feeling in-between, all of which are thought to affect quality of life, health, and well-being. A longitudinal cohort study with a comp...

Objective To compare health service use trajectories of residential aged care facility (RACF) residents reviewed by the Aged Care Rapid Response Team (ARRT) to RACF residents who received usual care. Methods A retrospective group-based trajectory analysis of RACF residents aged ≥65 years who were reviewed by ARRT during 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016...

Objective: To compare the health system utilisation patterns and health outcomes of residential aged care facility (RACF) residents reviewed by a hospital avoidance program to those of RACF residents who received usual care. Methods: A retrospective evaluation of a hospital avoidance program provided by a hospital-based medical and nursing outre...

Background : Timely definitive paediatric trauma care influences patient and parental physical and emotional outcomes. New South Wales (NSW) covers a large geographical area with all three NSW paediatric trauma centres (PTC) located in two approximated major cities, meaning it is inevitable that some injured children receive initial treatment local...

Background : Injury is the leading cause of childhood death and disability in Australia. Prehospital emergency services in New South Wales (NSW) are provided by NSW Ambulance. The incidence, pre-hospital care provided and outcomes of children suffering major injury in NSW has not previously been described. Methods : This retrospective study was co...

Background Information about children treated in New South Wales (NSW), Australia following major injury has been limited to those treated at trauma centres using mortality as the main outcome measure, restricting assessment of the effectiveness of the Trauma System. This study sought to describe the detailed characteristics as well as functional a...

Background Emerging adulthood is a unique segment of an individual’s life course. The defining features of this transitional period include identity exploration, instability, future possibilities, self-focus, and feeling in-between adolescence and adulthood, all of which are thought to affect quality of life, health, and well-being. A longitudinal...

The main objective of this study was to develop a freely available mobile software application and education platform in health and safety for aquaculture workers and managers. The application, called AquaSafe, was created in Portuguese and English for the Android system using the Java 8 programming language and the Android Studio development envir...

Introduction: Certain cognitive and physical conditions have been associated with increased risk of injury, particularly risk of vehicle crashes among older car drivers. This study aims to examine the association of seven select medical conditions among hospitalised road users compared to other hospitalised injuries, and to estimate the hospitalise...

This study examined hip fracture hospitalisation trends and predictors of access to rehabilitation for adults aged ≥ 65 years living with and without dementia. The hospitalisation rate was 2.5 times higher for adults living with dementia and adults who lived in aged care were between 4.8 and 9.3 times less likely to receive rehabilitation. Introdu...

This study aimed to operationalise and use the World Health Organisation's International Classification for Patient Safety (ICPS) to identify incident characteristics and contributing factors of deaths involving complications of medical or surgical care in Australia. A sample of 500 coronial findings related to patient deaths following complication...

Background Hip fracture risk is higher for older adults living in residential aged care facilities (RACF) and their health outcomes worse compared to older adults living in the community. Pre-hip fracture residential status is not well recorded within hospital records, necessitating linkage of hospital and residential aged care data to better ascer...

Introduction The Physiological Profile Assessment (PPA) is a validated composite measure of sensorimotor function, known to predict falls with 75% accuracy. This work aimed to investigate whether PPA is also associated with fragility fractures. Method Participants were 489 community-dwelling older people (age=70-90) enrolled in the longitudinal po...

AquaSafe: aplicação de dispositivos móveis na promoção de segurança e saúde ocupacional na aquicultura Introdução Profissionais que trabalham na aquicultura são bastante vulneráveis a lesões relacionadas ao trabalho, tornando importante a educação e treinamento profissional. Uma das formas de se fazer isto é através da aprendizagem móvel, utilizan...

A scoping project was funded by the Food and Agriculture Organization in 2017 on the health and safety of aquaculture workers. This project developed a template covering basic types of aquaculture production, health and safety hazards and risks, and related data on injuries and occupational ill health, regulations, social welfare conditions, and la...

Background: Injury remains the leading cause of death and disability for Australian children. There is known variability in the quality of care delivered to injured children in Australia. This study prioritises recommendations developed from an expert review of paediatric trauma cases, for implementation with the aim of improving health service de...

Objectives: In 2017 the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Committee on Fisheries committed to prioritize occupational safety and health issues in aquaculture (AOSH). An international team was established to synthesize OSH knowledge concerning more than 19 million, often vulnerable, aquaculture workers found globally. Methods: The study was co...

This study identified group-based trajectories of hospitalisation for older adults who were living in residential aged care facilities (RACF) or the community for up to 4 years after an index fall injury hospitalisation. Greater than 3 subsequent fall injury hospitalisations and time until move to a RACF were key predictors of RACF and community-li...

Purpose: To enhance understanding of access to rehabilitation services in Australian and New Zealand acute care facilities for older adults living with dementia and/or living in residential aged care facilities (RACFs) following a hip fracture. Methods: Information on hip fracture rehabilitation was obtained from an online survey of 40 health profe...

Objective: To quantify and describe excess mortality attributable to traumatic brain injury (TBI) during the 12 months after hospitalization. Design: Population-based matched cohort study using linked hospital and mortality data. Setting: Australia. Participants: Individuals 18 years and older who were hospitalized with a principal diagnosis...

Introduction: Parents of critically injured children can experience high levels of psychological distress post-injury, however little is known about their experiences and needs following injury. This study aimed to explore parent experiences and psychosocial support needs in the six months following child critical injury. Methods: An interpretiv...

Background: There is known variability in the quality of care delivered to injured children. Identifying where care improvement can be made is critical. This study aimed to review paediatric trauma cases across the most populous Australian State to identify factors contributing to clinical incidents. Methods: Medical records from three New South...

Introduction: The psychological distress and risk of mental health problems for parents of children with critical injury is well-established. There has been little exploration, however, of parent experiences and psychosocial trajectories over time following child critical injury. To address this knowledge gap, a longitudinal qualitative study was...

Objectives: To describe the injury profile, hospitalisation rates and health outcomes for older people with cognitive impairment and to determine whether these differ from those with normal cognition. Methods: Participants were 867 community-dwelling 70-90 year olds enrolled in the population-based longitudinal Sydney Memory and Ageing Study (MA...

Care transitions for older people moving from residential aged care facilities (RACFs) to hospital services are associated with greater challenges and poorer outcomes. An integrative review was conducted to investigate models of care designed to avoid or improve transitions for older people residing in RACFs to hospital settings. Twenty-one studies...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=br.gov.rs.ddpa_seapi.aquasaude.aquasafe Aquasafe é uma plataforma de atenção à saúde do trabalhador na aquicultura, com ações dirigidas aos trabalhadores e produtores da aquicultura, estudantes e profissionais. São abordados os principais riscos, fontes e perigos nas atividades de trabalho. Informações...

OBJECTIVES: To quantify and describe the incidence, cost, and temporal trends of sports injury-related hospitalisations in Australian children over a 10-year period. DESIGN: Retrospective population-based cohort study. METHODS: This study used linked hospitalisation and mortality data of children aged ≤16 years who were hospitalised for sports-rela...

This study quantifies the incidence and characteristics of work-related injury and disease in the aquaculture and related service industries in Australia. Information on serious (i.e. one or more weeks off work) injury/disease claims was obtained from the National Data Set of Workers’ Compensation-based Statistics during 1 July 2012–30 June 2016. T...

Objective: Assault is a global public health issue that affects individuals of all ages. This study describes the epidemiological profile of assault-related hospitalization and health outcomes across different age groups in New South Wales, Australia. Methods: Population-based linked hospitalization and mortality data from January 1, 2010, to Ju...

This study compared hip fracture rates and health outcomes of older people living in residential aged care facilities (RACFs) to the community. The RACF resident age-standardised hospitalisation rate was five times higher than the community rate and declining. RACF residents experience overall worse health outcomes and survival post-hip fracture....

Aim Globally, burns remain a significant public health issue that disproportionately affect young children. The current study examines the 10‐year epidemiological profile of burn hospitalisations, hospital treatment cost and health outcomes by age group for children ≤16 years in Australia. Methods National, population‐based, linked hospital and mo...

Background Childhood injury remains a significant public health problem responsible for significant morbidity and mortality. However, injury has been found to increase with socioeconomic disadvantage for some injuries. The current study examines the 10-year epidemiological profile of injury hospitalisations of children ≤16 years by socioeconomic st...

Background Measures to improve the accuracy of determining survival and intensive care unit (ICU) admission using the International Classification of Injury Severity Score (ICISS) are not often conducted on a population-wide basis. The aim is to determine if the predictive ability of survival and ICU admission using ICISS can be improved depending...

Background: Paediatric injury impacts the entire family. Many parents experience stress and anxiety following paediatric injury, but little is known about factors that support parents' wellbeing and how they successfully manage the adversity of child injury during acute hospitalisation. Aim: To explore parent experiences and resilience-promoting...

Aim Readmission of paediatric trauma patients is associated with increased hospital length of stay, additional operative procedures and significant costs to the health‐care system. The rates and causes of readmission of paediatric trauma patients are not well reported outside of the USA or single centres. This nation‐wide study is the first in Aust...

Background Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is an intermediate state between normal cognitive ageing and dementia. Global estimates suggest 22% of adults>65 years have MCI. People with dementia have double the rate of injury-related hospitalisations and poorer health outcomes than those without. However, no previous research has explored whether peo...

Background Both self-harm and interpersonal violence are leading causes of injury mortality and hospitalised morbidity, with a significant economic and societal cost. Objective To determine the 10 year temporal trends, treatment cost and health outcomes of intentional injury hospitalisations of children aged ≤16 years in Australia. Method A retro...

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Although many factors have been associated with increased risk of death among individuals with TBI, it is unclear to what extent they contribute to excess mortality. Objective: To quantify and describe excess mortality attributable to TBI during the 12 m...

Introduction: Injury is a leading cause of death and disability among children worldwide, and participation in sport and active recreation is a common contributor to this burden. To date there have been no nationwide population-based study examining trends in sports-related injury among Australian children. This study aims to (1) quantify and descr...

Issue addressed As injuries are preventable, understanding the age profile of specific injury mechanisms is critical for developing injury prevention strategies. This study examined the profile and temporal trends of injury mortality of young people aged ≤24 years in Australia across developmental life stages. Method A retrospective analysis of in...

Introduction Data-linkage studies using administrative hospital data have shown that people with dementia have double the rate of injury-related hospitalisations and poorer health outcomes than those without. No previous research has explored whether people with mild cognitive impairment are also at increased risk of serious injury requiring hospit...

Introduction Prior and repeated self-harm hospitalisations are common risk factors for suicide. However, few studies have accounted for pre-existing comorbidities and prior hospital use when quantifying the burden of self-harm. Objectives and Approach To quantify hospitalisation in the 12 months preceding and re-hospitalisation and mortality risk...

Background: In Australia, the New South Wales (NSW) State Insurance Regulatory Authority has been continuously developing and implementing clinical practice guidelines to address the health and economic burden from whiplash associated disorders (WAD). Despite this, it is uncertain the extent to which the guidelines are followed. This study aimed t...

Issue addressed Child head injuries can cause life‐long disability and are a major cause of mortality globally. The incidence and impact of child head injuries in Australia is unknown. This study aims to quantify the incidence, characteristics and treatment cost, and to identify factors associated with the severity of hospitalisations of head injur...

Introduction: Injury is a leading cause of death and disability among children and young people. Recovery may be negatively affected by unwarranted clinical variation such as representation to an emergency department (ED), readmission to a hospital, and mortality. The aim of this study was to examine unwarranted clinical variation across providers...

Background To quantify the incidence and timing of second hip fracture, and to evaluate the relative impact of comorbidities on risk of second hip fracture. Methods Hospitalization records for individuals aged ≥65, admitted to a New South Wales hospital for fall‐related hip fracture between 1 January 2005 and 31 December 2009 were linked. Comorbid...

Objective To compare differences in injury characteristics, health outcomes and treatment costs between urban and rural residents who were hospitalised following an injury. Design A retrospective examination of injury‐linked hospitalisation and mortality data in New South Wales from 1 January 2010 to 30 June 2014. Participants Urban (496 325) and...