Exploring Harms Experienced by Children Aged 7 to 11 Using Ambulance Attendance Data: A 6-Year Comparison with Adolescents Aged 12–17

Debbie Scott, Rose Crossin, Rowan Ogeil, Karen Smith and Dan I. Lubman
Additional contact information
Debbie Scott: Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, Box Hill, Melbourne, VIC 3128, Australia
Rose Crossin: Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, Box Hill, Melbourne, VIC 3128, Australia
Rowan Ogeil: Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, Box Hill, Melbourne, VIC 3128, Australia
Karen Smith: Ambulance Victoria, Doncaster, VIC 3108, Australia
Dan I. Lubman: Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, Box Hill, Melbourne, VIC 3128, Australia

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 7, 1-13

Abstract: Many population data sources do not routinely collect data of children under 12, despite research showing that mental health, self-injurious behaviour, and substance ingestion can have severe consequences in this age group. We used 6 years (January 2012 to December 2017) of ambulance attendance data from the Australian state of Victoria to characterise mental health, self-injurious behaviour, and substance ingestion in children aged 7–11. We compared this group to older children aged 12–17. We found that in comparison to those aged 12–17 ( n = 26,778), a smaller number of children aged 7–11 years ( n = 1558) were experiencing serious harms, with mental health symptomology the most common harmful outcome. Self-injurious behaviour significantly increased in both age groups throughout the study period. For mental health, self-injurious behaviour and substance ingestion in the 7–11 age group, males were significantly over-represented. These aged 7–11 were more likely to ingest pharmaceuticals, rather than alcohol or illicit substances, and suicidal ideation was the most common self-injurious behaviour in this age group. Our study suggests that data collection needs to occur specifically in the 7–11 age group, and importantly, services and interventions to improve mental health and wellbeing will need to be specifically designed and targeted at this age group.

Keywords: adolescence; self-injury; socio-economic status; suicidal behaviour; substance ingestion; alcohol; prescription drugs; illicit drugs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/7/1385/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/7/1385/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:7:p:1385-:d:155627

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().