Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian children hospitalised for burn injuries: a population data linkage study.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate differences in the characteristics of burn injuries leading to hospitalisation of Indigenous Australian and non-Indigenous children in New South Wales.Design, setting: Population-based cohort analysis of linked hospital and mortality data for 2000-2014. PARTICIPANTS: 35 749 Indigenous and 1 088 938 non-Indigenous children aged 0-13 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The external cause of the injury, its anatomic location, total body surface area affected (%TBSA), burn depth, length of hospital stay (LOS). RESULTS: 4246 non-Indigenous and 323 Indigenous children were hospitalised for a first burn injury during 2000-2014. A higher proportion of Indigenous than non-Indigenous children were admitted with burns affecting more than 10% TBSA (17% v 12%) and a lower proportion of Indigenous children than of non-Indigenous children were treated at a hospital with a paediatric tertiary referral burn unit (40% v 50%; P CONCLUSION: The proportion of Indigenous children with burns who presented with burn injuries affecting more than 10% TBSA was greater than for non-Indigenous children. Their mean LOS was also longer; the difference remained statistically significant after adjusting for characteristics of the burn and of residential location. Language: en