Citation

Cornell S, Brander RW, Peden AE. Emerg. Med. Australas. 2023; 35(4): 691-693.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1742-6723.14219

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Unintentional deaths from selfies have received limited exposure in emergency medicine literature; yet trauma remains the leading cause of death and disability in children and young adults, and most of those implicated in a selfie incident are in this demographic. Selfie-related injuries and deaths may be a relatively new phenomenon, but data suggest they are a public health hazard that is not going away. Emergency medicine practitioners may have a role to play in the primary and secondary prevention of selfie incidents, including delivering opportunistic behaviour change messaging to those who are at risk of being injured or killed in a selfie-related incident, particularly young (14-25 years) males. Emergency medicine specialists should be aware of the dangers of selfie-related incidents and understand their polytraumatic presentation.

Language: en

Keywords

drowning; trauma; social media; photograph; selfie