Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention
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Helicopter emergency medical services are an important part of many healthcare systems. Norway has a nationwide physician staffed air ambulance service with 12 bases servicing a country with large geographical variations in population density. The aim of the study was to estimate optimal air ambulance base locations. ⋯ The whole population could be reached in 45 min or less using nine optimally placed bases. The current base structure could be improved by moving or adding one or two select bases. Municipality level data appears sufficient for proper analysis.
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Reliable data on traffic deaths are important for planning road safety programmes and evaluating progress. Although pedestrians comprise approximately 40% of traffic deaths in low-income and middle-income countries, official government statistics in India suggest that pedestrians comprise less than 10% of deaths. ⋯ Official tabulations of traffic deaths in India do not correctly represent the types of roads users killed. Until the Indian National Crime Records Bureau has corrected the process of generating statistical tabulations from police reports, data on the types of road users killed in India should not be used for research and policy. In the interim, researchers and policy makers who need such information should extract it from police case files.
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To count and characterise injuries resulting from legal intervention by US law enforcement personnel and injury ratios per 10 000 arrests or police stops, thus expanding discussion of excessive force by police beyond fatalities. ⋯ Healthcare administrative data sets can inform public debate about injuries resulting from legal police intervention. Excess per capita death rates among blacks and youth at police hands are reflections of excess exposure. International Classification of Diseases legal intervention coding needs revision.
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To examine the influence of real on-trade and off-trade alcohol prices and socioeconomic and environmental factors on rates of violence-related emergency department (ED) attendances in England and Wales over an 8-year period. ⋯ Small increases in the price of alcohol, above inflation, in both markets, would substantially reduce the number of patients attending EDs for treatment of violence-related injuries in England and Wales. Reforming the current alcohol taxation system may be more effective at reducing violence-related injury than minimum unit pricing.