Relation of child, caregiver, and environmental characteristics to childhood injury in an urban Aboriginal cohort in New South Wales, Australia

Objective : Despite being disproportionately affected by injury, little is known about factors associated with injury in Aboriginal children. We investigated factors associated with injury among urban Aboriginal children attending four Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services in New South Wales, Australia. Methods : We examined characteristics of caregiver-reported child injury, and calculated prevalence ratios of ‘ever-injury’ by child, family, and environmental factors. Results : Among children in the cohort, 29% (n=373/1,303) had ever broken a bone, been knocked out, required stitches or been hospitalised for a burn or poisoning; 40–78% of first injuries occurred at home and 60–91% were treated in hospital. Reported ever-injury was significantly lower (prevalence ratio ≤0.80) among children who were female, younger, whose caregiver had low psychological distress and had not been imprisoned, whose family experienced few major life events, and who hadn’t experienced alcohol misuse in the household or theft in the community, compared to other cohort members. Conclusions : In this urban Aboriginal child cohort, injury was common and associated with measures of family and community vulnerability. Implications for public health : Prevention efforts targeting upstream injury determinants and Aboriginal children living in vulnerable families may reduce child injury. Existing broad-based intervention programs for vulnerable families may present opportunities to deliver targeted injury prevention. Key words : Aboriginal child health, child injury, social determinants of health, injury prevention, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health ServicesKF is supported by an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (#1016475) and an NHMRC capacity building grant (#573122). EB is supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (grant number 1042717)

A blueprint for an inclusive, global deep-sea Ocean Decade field programme

The ocean plays a crucial role in the functioning of the Earth System and in the provision of vital goods and services. The United Nations (UN) declared 2021–2030 as the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. The Roadmap for the Ocean Decade aims to achieve six critical societal outcomes (SOs) by 2030, through the pursuit of four objectives (Os). It specifically recognizes the scarcity of biological data for deep-sea biomes, and challenges the global scientific community to conduct research to advance understanding of deep-sea ecosystems to inform sustainable management. In this paper, we map four key scientific questions identified by the academic community to the Ocean Decade SOs: (i) What is the diversity of life in the deep ocean? (ii) How are populations and habitats connected? (iii) What is the role of living organisms in ecosystem function and service provision? and (iv) How do species, communities, and ecosystems respond to disturbance? We then consider the design of a global-scale program to address these questions by reviewing key drivers of ecological pattern and process. We recommend using the following criteria to stratify a global survey design: biogeographic region, depth, horizontal distance, substrate type, high and low climate hazard, fished/unfished, near/far from sources of pollution, licensed/protected from industry activities. We consider both spatial and temporal surveys, and emphasize new biological data collection that prioritizes southern and polar latitudes, deeper (> 2000 m) depths, and midwater environments. We provide guidance on observational, experimental, and monitoring needs for different benthic and pelagic ecosystems. We then review recent efforts to standardize biological data and specimen collection and archiving, making “sampling design to knowledge application” recommendations in the context of a new global program. We also review and comment on needs, and recommend actions, to develop capacity in deep-sea research; and the role of inclusivity - from accessing indigenous and local knowledge to the sharing of technologies - as part of such a global program. We discuss the concept of a new global deep-sea biological research program ‘Challenger 150,’ highlighting what it could deliver for the Ocean Decade and UN Sustainable Development Goal 14

Relation of child, caregiver, and environmental characteristics to childhood injury in an urban Aboriginal cohort in New South Wales, Australia

Abstract Objective: Despite being disproportionately affected by injury, little is known about factors associated with injury in Aboriginal children. We investigated factors associated with injury among urban Aboriginal children attending four Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services in New South Wales, Australia. Methods: We examined characteristics of caregiver‐reported child injury, and calculated prevalence ratios of ‘ever‐injury’ by child, family, and environmental factors. Results: Among children in the cohort, 29% (n=373/1,303) had ever broken a bone, been knocked out, required stitches or been hospitalised for a burn or poisoning; 40–78% of first injuries occurred at home and 60–91% were treated in hospital. Reported ever‐injury was significantly lower (prevalence ratio ≤0.80) among children who were female, younger, whose caregiver had low psychological distress and had not been imprisoned, whose family experienced few major life events, and who hadn't experienced alcohol misuse in the household or theft in the community, compared to other cohort members. Conclusions: In this urban Aboriginal child cohort, injury was common and associated with measures of family and community vulnerability. Implications for public health: Prevention efforts targeting upstream injury determinants and Aboriginal children living in vulnerable families may reduce child injury. Existing broad‐based intervention programs for vulnerable families may present opportunities to deliver targeted injury prevention