Unintentional non‐fatal hospitalised falls and motor vehicle injuries in the Auckland and Northland regions: Geographical patterns and associations with rurality

Abstract

This paper examined the relationship between rurality and unintentional non-fatal hospitalisations for falls and motorised vehicle transport injuries and their geographic patterns in New Zealand. Data were constructed from Statistics New Zealand's Integrated Data Infrastructure. Logistic regression revealed that the odds of hospitalisations from falls were lower in more rural areas, but motor vehicle injuries were higher. The odds of injured people being discharged from a ward increased with rurality for both injury types. This study discovered geographical disparities in the two injury types.The findings of this study direct attention to underlying contextual factors that require targeted prevention strategies. K E Y W O R D Sfalls, geographic patterns, motorised vehicle transport injuries, Rurality Index, New Zealand