Factors contributing to longer length of stay in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children hospitalised for burn injury

Courtney Ryder, Tamara Mackean, Kate Hunter, Kurt Towers, Kris Rogers, Andrew Holland, Rebecca Ivers

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13 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Background: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children have higher incidence, severity and hospital length of stay for their acute burn injuries than other Australian children. We examined factors contributing to longer length of stay for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with an acute burn injury. Methods: Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand admissions of children < 16 years of age between October 2009 and July 2018 were analysed. Descriptive statistics explored patient and injury characteristics; Cox-regression models estimated characteristics associated with longer length of stay. Knowledge Interface methodology and Indigenous research methods were used throughout. Results: A total of 723 children were identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and 6257 as other Australian. The median hospital length of stay for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children (5 days [CI 5-6]) was 4 days longer than other Australian children (1 day [CI 1-2]). Remoteness, flame burns, high percentage total body surface area (%TBSA) and full thickness burns were factors associated with longer length of stay for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Similar prognostic factors were identified for other Australian children along with Streptococcus sp. and Staphylococcus sp. infection. Conclusion: Remoteness, flame burns, %TBSA, and full thickness burns are prognostic factors contributing to extended hospital length of stay for all Australian children. These factors are more prevalent in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, impacting length of stay. Treatment programs, clinical guidelines, and burns policies should engage with the unique circumstances of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to mitigate inequities in health.

Original languageEnglish
Article number52
Number of pages11
JournalInjury Epidemiology
Volume7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Oct 2020

Bibliographical note

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Keywords

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander
  • Burn injury
  • Children
  • Length of stay
  • Prognostic factors
  • LOS: Length of Stay
  • SES: Socio Economic Status
  • BRANZ: Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand
  • ARIA: Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia
  • PROGRESS-Plus: Place Residence, Race/Ethnicity, Occupation, Gender, Religion, Education, Social-Capital, Socioeconomic Position, Age, Disability, Sexual Orientation, Other Vulnerable Groups
  • %TBSA: Percentage Total Body Surface Area
  • %BSA: Percentage Body Surface Area
  • CI: Confidence Interval

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