Posted: May 11th, 2015

Focused report on unintentional injury- Road Traffic Injuries (RTIs)

Focused report on unintentional injury- Road Traffic Injuries (RTIs)

Order Description

Task description

Assessment 2: Focused report on unintentional injury-my choice is Road Traffic Injuries (RTIs)

Weighting: 40% of total course mark

Length: 2500 words

Injuries are a major cause of preventable death and disability worldwide.
Addressing the problem of injury in the population requires us to follow 4 steps known as the “Public Health Approach”.
This is illustrated in the following figure.

We need to start by understanding the size of the problem, and identifying the risk factors. Such information will indicate how serious the injury problem is, and where prevention measures are most urgently needed. Then, we can evaluate potential interventions, and widely implement those found to be effective.

In this report you will focus on unintentional injuries only: – MY Choice is RTIs -Road Traffic Accidents,

Confine your report to one country (e.g. Australia) or one region (e.g. Asia).
If you wish, you can further focus your chosen injury mechanism in relation to a specific population subgroup (e.g. falls in children or falls in older people). You should endeavour to provide detailed information from appropriate resources, such that your readers understand the extent of the problem within the population and the identified risk factors in the country or area on which you are reporting. Consider also, whether risk is distributed equally within your population.
See for example: Poulos, R., et al. (2007). “Area socioeconomic status and childhood injury morbidity in New South Wales, Australia.” Injury Prevention 13(5): 322-327.

1-Research the literature to identify the range of interventions that are (or should be) available to prevent and control this injury.

2- Review government websites and reports to understand what is being done at a population level in the country or region that you have selected.

3- You should discuss the interventions in terms of the 3 E’s of injury prevention (education, enforcement and engineering); and briefly review the evidence of their effectiveness (you will likely need to search Medline or the Cochrane Library -Public health practitioners must be familiar with these resources. See the UNSW library and your lecture notes on “Evidence-Based Public Health”..

4-To what extent is this injury addressed comprehensively? For example, a comprehensive approach to injury prevention would see a range of interventions within the cells of the Haddon’s Matrix.

5- Conclude your report with any recommendations for areas of further action.

6- Your final page should include an example of a completed Haddon’s matrix for the injury mechanism you have selected.

Please note, depending on what you have chosen, you may need to select just one aspect for the Haddon’s matrix or the task will be bigger than required e.g. interventions to prevent burns from fire; or interventions to prevent burns from scalds. Ensure you define what aspect you are looking at in the Haddon’s matrix.

4 Haddon’s matrix is a tool frequently used in injury prevention. You will need to do your own research on this.

Assignments 1 and 2 require you to write scientific reports on the topic of injury (details under assignment headings) which would be suitable for hypothetical colleagues who are public health practitioners and managers. Therefore, you may assume a high level of knowledge of public health in general; though you should assume the group you are writing for has not worked in the area of injury prevention and control.
In presenting your work, please avoid use of the word “accident”. Practitioners who work in injury prevention avoid the word “accident” because it implies that such events are unpredictable and unavoidable. As you do your research you will see that injuries are largely predictable and preventable.

Students wishing to learn more about the practical application of the public health approach to injury prevention might be interested to read this paper by Jones et al: DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2009.10.001]

Stay within the word limit for each assignment. Given the restrictive word limits (e.g. 1500 words) you will have to be selective in what you write.

Keep to the point and avoid unnecessary detail or ‘waffle’. Sentences are preferred to dot points which should be used sparingly. Your tutor will focus on your written text.

You may use tables and diagrams for numerical data and illustrations to enhance the text, but they should be kept to a minimum. Do not provide large tables packed with information as a way of reducing your word limit as they will not be marked in any detail.

Ensure that your report is written scientifically. This means your work should include evidence to support any claims you make from a careful search of appropriate literature (scientific literature, government reports, and authoritative sources).

Your work must be appropriately referenced. References are NOT counted as part of your word limit. Note your word limit at the top of your assignment. Word limits will be checked when your work is marked.