Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention
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To examine the costs of road traffic injuries (RTIs) in Vietnam and factors associated with increased costs. ⋯ RTIs can cause a substantial economic burden to the patient and family. During hospitalisation on average, an RTI would cost approximately 6 months of salary. In addition to interventions to decrease the risk of RTIs, those reducing the severity, such as wearing a motorcycle helmet, should be enforced to minimise the economic and health consequences of injury.
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Falls are the leading cause of injury in older adults. Identifying people at risk before they experience a serious fall requiring hospitalisation allows an opportunity to intervene earlier and potentially reduce further falls and subsequent healthcare costs. The purpose of this project was to develop a referral pathway to a community falls-prevention team for older people who had experienced a fall attended by a paramedic service and who were not transported to hospital. It was also hypothesised that providing intervention to this group of clients would reduce future falls-related ambulance call-outs, emergency department presentations and hospital admissions. ⋯ Although this pilot programme had support from all levels of management as well as from the service providers, it did not translate into actual referrals. Several explanations are provided for these preliminary findings.