@article{ref1,
title="Dog bite emergency department presentations in Brisbane metro south: epidemiology and exploratory medical geography for targeted interventions",
journal="One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands)",
year="2021",
author="Pekin, Alexander and Rynhoud, Hester and Brennan, Bradley and Soares Magalhães, Ricardo J.",
volume="12",
number="",
pages="e100204-e100204",
abstract="Dog bites are a recognized public health issue due to their impact on human and  animal health/welfare. This study aimed to investigate demographic and geographic  disparities in the epidemiology of dog bites presentations reported to the emergency  departments of the four main public hospitals in the Metro South region of Brisbane,  Queensland, Australia. Dog bite patient hospitalization data geolocated to the  street address were collected from clinical records management systems from the four  main public hospitals in the Metro South Hospital Health Service region of  Queensland for a 5-year period (ie. 01/07/2013 to 30/06/2017). We investigated the  epidemiology of three clinical outcomes including probability of paediatric cases  (paediatric vs. adult), probability of dog bites to the head (head injury vs. other  injury), and probability of re-presentation to the ED following their initial dog  bite (yes or no) by way of univariable then multivariable Bernoulli logistic  regression models including patient postcode as a random effect. Residual  semivariograms were created to identify spatial trends in the medical geography of  dog bites and binomial geostatistical models were created to predict the probability  of the outcomes of interest in Brisbane Metro south and surrounding suburbs. Our  results demonstrate that compared to adult dog bite cases, paediatric dog bite cases  were significantly associated with bites to the head or face or neck (OR 14.65,  P < 0.001), bites to the lower body (OR 4.95, P = 0.035) and larger dogs (OR 0.25,  P = 0.030 for small dogs). The probability of head injuries was greater in younger  age groups (17-39 OR 0.25, P = 0.001; 40-64 OR 0.15, P = 0.001; 65-above OR 0.14,  P = 0.029). Attacks by small dogs were more likely to inflict head wounds than large  dogs (OR 6.12, P < 0.001). The probability of re-presentation was lower in patients  bitten by medium sized dogs (OR 0.29, P = 0.027) than larger dogs. Our predictive  maps showed significant clustering of paediatric case probability in the Logan city  and Redlands councils associated with socioeconomic status of the places of  residence. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate significant demographic and  geographic heterogeneity in dog bite ED presentations. Public health interventions  to reduce the burden of dog bites should be targeted to the populations most at-risk  in the areas identified in this study.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2352-7714",
doi="10.1016/j.onehlt.2020.100204",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.onehlt.2020.100204"
}