Data presented today (14 December) at an injury seminar held in Dublin showed that, in 2003, Northern Ireland had a 10% lower death rate than the Republic of Ireland for all deaths due to injury. However, death rates in Northern Ireland were still higher than those in many parts of the UK. Injury death rates in Northern Ireland were 5% higher than in Wales and 26% higher than in England, the country with the lowest injury death rate of countries in the UK.
The seminar was hosted by Ireland and Northern Ireland’s Population Health Observatory (INIsPHO) which is housed in the Institute of Public Health in Ireland (IPH). The results were contained in a comparative study of injury mortality across England, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, that was conducted by the Injury Observatory for Britain and Ireland (IOBI). INIsPHO is a collaborating member of IOBI.
Steve Barron, Research Analyst in INIsPHO, explained that “In 2003 - the latest year of the study - the mortality rate for all deaths due to injury or external causes was 10% lower in Northern Ireland than in the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland had a significantly lower death rate than the Republic of Ireland for unintentional injury deaths (17% lower), suicide (18% lower) and accidental falls (62% lower). However, death rates in Northern Ireland were still higher than those in England for all injuries, suicide, homicide and motor vehicle traffic accidents.”
Dr Kevin Balanda, Associate Director of the IPH continued; “These are just some of the very dramatic differences between the five countries in Britain and Ireland”.
“These differences may be due to differences in physical environments, differences in people’s behaviour and attitude towards safety, or different public health priorities. Most importantly, the approaches to injury prevention and management adopted in one country may be more effective than those adopted in others”, he said, “and we want to identify the lessons we can learn from those countries. IOBI will be very useful for this purpose as it is a project that works across five countries”.
Dr Balanda ended by saying that “Next year, we will also be looking at other ways that we can use IOBI to provide a stronger focus to a co-ordinated approach to injury prevention and control activities on the island.”
Further Information
Arlene McKay, IPH Communications Officer: +44 (0)28 906484
NOTES TO EDITORS
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The Institute of Public Health in Ireland is an all-island body which aims to combat health inequalities and influence public policy in favour of health. Its remit is to ' promote co-operation for public health between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland' including the areas of monitoring and surveillance. Further information can be accessed at www.publichealth.ie
Ireland and Northern Ireland’s Population Health Observatory (INIsPHO) was established in 2005 within the Institute of Public Health to produce, and disseminate and support the use of health information in efforts to improve health and reduce health inequalities across the whole island. Further information can be accessed at www.inispho.org.
- The Injury Observatory for Britain and Ireland (IOBI) is a thematic observatory that was established by the Association of Public Health Observatories (APHO) and a number of key academic institutions. The purpose of IOBI is to support injury prevention practitioners by making important and relevant information and tools available in one website www.injuryobservatory.net
- Deaths not due to illness or disease are due to an external cause and generally comprise accidental falls, motor vehicle traffic accidents, drownings, fires, suicide, homicide and poisoning. Deaths due to external causes represent approximately 5% of all deaths each year.
- Data from different countries were compared using directly age standardized rates. This adjusted the data for differences in the age structure of between countries and allows the rates to be compared on the same scale.
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How does the Republic of Ireland do?
- The Republic of Ireland and Scotland have significantly higher mortality rates than England, Wales and Northern Ireland for deaths due to injuries or external causes in 2003.
- The Republic of Ireland had the highest injury mortality rate of the five countries each year during the period 1996-2003.
- The mortality rate for all deaths due to injury or external causes was 40% higher in the Republic of Ireland than in England in 2003.
