- Title
- Surveillance of Hospital-Presenting Intentional Self-Harm in Western Sydney, Australia, during the Implementation of a New Self-Harm Reporting Field
- Creator
- Bandara, Piumee; Page, Andrew; Hammond, Trent Ernest; Sperandei, Sandro; Stevens, Garry John; Gunja, Naren; Anand, Manish; Jones, Alison; Carter, Greg
- Relation
- Crisis Vol. -, Issue 9 February 2022
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/0227-5910/a000845
- Publisher
- Hogrefe Publishing
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2022
- Description
- Background: Hospital-presenting self-harm is a strong predictor of suicide and has substantial human and health service costs. Aims: We aimed to identify changes in case ascertainment after implementation of a new self-harm reporting field at a tertiary hospital in New South Wales, and to report event rates, demographic, and clinical characteristics. Method: Self-harm events presenting to the emergency department (October 2017 to August 2020) were identified using clinical documentation and a new reporting field. Changes in the frequency of self-harm in the period after implementation of the self-harm field were assessed through Poisson regression models. Results: A twofold increase in the frequency of self-harm was detected following the implementation of the new reporting field. The annual average age-standardized event rate of self-harm was 110.4 per 100,000 (120.8 per 100,000 for females; 100.1 per 100,000 for males). The highest rates by age and sex were for females aged 15-19 years (375 per 100,000) and males aged 20-24 years (175 per 100,000). Limitations: Self-harm identification relies on clinician coding practice, which is subject to variability and potential under-enumeration. Conclusion: These findings highlight the value of a self-harm reporting field in hospital record systems for accurate recording and long-term monitoring of self-harm event rates.
- Subject
- self-harm; deliberate self-harm; intentional self-harm; suicide prevention; reattempt; re-presentation; SDG 3; Sustainable Development Goals
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1467963
- Identifier
- uon:47952
- Identifier
- ISSN:0227-5910
- Language
- eng
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