Heat waves (HWs) have killed more people in Australia than all other natural hazards combined. Climate change is expected to increase the frequency, duration, and intensity of HWs and leads to a doubling of heat-related deaths over the next 40 years. Despite being a significant public health issue, HWs do not attract the same level of attention from researchers, policy makers, and emergency management agencies compared to other natural hazards. The purpose of the study was to identify risk factors that might lead to population vulnerability to HW in Western Australia (WA). HW vulnerability and resilience among the population of the state of WA were investigated by using time series analysis. The health impacts of HWs were assessed by comparing the associations between hospital emergency department (ED) presentations, hospital admissions and mortality data, and intensities of HW. Risk factors including age, gender, socioeconomic status (SES), remoteness, and geographical locations were examined to determine whether certain population groups were more at risk of adverse health impacts due to extreme heat. We found that hospital admissions due to heat-related conditions and kidney diseases, and overall ED attendances, were sensitive indicators of HW. Children aged 14 years or less and those aged 60 years or over were identified as the most vulnerable populations to HWs as shown in ED attendance data. Females had more ED attendances and hospital admissions due to kidney diseases; while males had more heat-related hospital admissions than females. There were significant dose–response relationships between HW intensity and SES, remoteness, and health service usage. The more disadvantaged and remotely located the population, the higher the health service usage during HWs. Our study also found that some population groups and locations were resilient to extreme heat. We produced a mapping tool, which indicated geographic areas throughout WA with various vulnerability and resilience levels to HW. The findings from this study will allow local government, community service organizations, and agencies in health, housing, and education to better identify and understand the degree of vulnerability to HW throughout the state, better target preparatory strategies, and allocate limited resources to those most in need.

A B S T R A C TWe usually assume that each commuter is an efficient traveller, which means they maximize trip utility. From a spatial optimization perspective, a commuter might therefore choose the nearest station to reach their destination. However, based on a survey at seven train stations in Perth, Western Australia, only between 30 and 80 percent of commuters choose the nearest station to their origin. Many factors could affect this travel behaviour. From a logistic regression model, five factors were found to be significant (pvalue <0.05), indicating that commuters are more likely to choose the non-nearest station for longer commutes, while traveling further away from origins and destination if the chosen stations are at, or near, the end of train lines (captive stations). If the chosen stations are along the train line (non-captive stations), longer distance, longer wait times and lower costs from the chosen station to a destination were found to be significant. The results of the study are important for public transport policy makers to understand transit choice behaviours. Therefore public transport policies such as adjustments of travel fees and improving station service and facilities, could be developed.

Background Now, in China, injury has been become the leading cause of death of children aged 0–14 instead of malnutrition and infectious diseases. Each year, it is estimated that at least 10 million children have been harmed by the various injuries, 100 000 children death and 400 000 children disabled. Objective To study the status of child injure in Tongzhou district of Beijing for providing scientific basis on injury prevention and control. Methods Injury surveillance data of three hospitals in Tongzhou district from 2006 to 2010 were collected and analysed. Results A total of 4855 child injury cases were collected, including 3177 boys (65.42%) and 1679 girls (34.58%). The most frequent time of injury occurrence was June and July in 1 year, and at 10:00 in 1 day. The five main causes of injury were falls (37.72%), animal injury (29.26%), blunt injury (12.68%), non-motor vehicle accident (6.45%) and knife/sharp injury (6.22%). The majority of injuries happened in home (49.42%), schools (25.58%), roads (14.68%), public places (6.49%) and sport facilities (1.69%). Upper limbs (35.61%), lower limbs (32.33%) and heads (23.54%) were injured more frequently than other parts of the body. The most of the injuries are unintentional, minor injuries. Significance It is suggested to take intervention programmes against different child injuries and increase the publicity of injury in families and schools to improve the supervision of parents and the whole society.