Dexter Drayton
A Spatial Examination of Traumatic Injuries Admitted to St. Michael's Hospital Trauma Centre 1994-2003 © 2005
Understanding the occurrence and spatial distribution of injury is important for developing and evaluating prevention and control strategies. This study examined ten years (1994-2003) of data on patients admitted to 8t. Michael's Hospital Trauma Centre. This study had four primary objectives:
1. to provide a non-spatial descriptive analysis of the dataset
2. to describe the spatial distribution of injuries and identify areas of high and low injury density
3. to identify areas ofhigh and low incidence and case fatality rates
4. to develop a regression analysis model to determine patient characteristics related to mortality
Methods used in this study included the kernel density analysis, nearest-neighbour analysis, and loglinear modelling. Results established that various causes of trauma injuries had distinct spatial outcomes ( e.g., falls exhibited a more clustered pattern than any other injury, while motor vehicle related injuries displayed a more widely distributed pattern). Age, injury severity score and intentional injury were risk factors associated with mortality. The results of this study can be used to better inform the decisions regarding injury prevention and/or control.