Quick Dips

Oops! Ow!

Dr Tony Reeder

During 1992, 590 people aged between 15 and 24 died in New Zealand -- 77% of these deaths were due to injury, with traffic crashes accounting for most of these. Sporting activities also contributed to serious non-fatal injuries. Gaining a better understanding of why these injuries occur is being studied by Dr Tony Reeder of the University of Otago Medical School's Injury Prevention Research Unit.

Reeder has been awarded a Health Research Council fellowship to support research into the relationships between psychosocial factors and protective and risky behaviours that may influence the chances of young adults suffering serious accidental injuries.

A recent study of sports injuries found that those aged 10-29 were most frequently injured. Promotion of a "safety culture" could help significantly reduce serious injuries among youth. This would link specific injury prevention programmes (for example, in road safety and sports) with other youth-related health, education and welfare policies to reinforce and consolidate safety messages.

Reeder wants to see whether specific classes of injuries to young people have common underlying factors which they may share with other problems that affect youth. His research aims to find, for example, whether young people who practice health-risk behaviours such as smoking, who have an adverse family background, or who show "a lack of attachment to institutions of conventional society" (such as school) are more likely than those without these characteristics to acquire a traffic conviction record. The research will also test whether people with such a profile may be less likely to adopt protective practices in sport (such as wearing a mouthguard) and more likely to be seriously injured during sporting activities.

Data collected through the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (DMHDS) will be used in the research. The DMHDS is a comprehensive longitudinal study of the health, development, attitudes and behaviours of approximately 1,000 young people born in Dunedin between 1 April 1972 and 31 March 1973. It offers a rare opportunity to examine, in depth, important but under-researched issues that affect young adults.

Tony Reeder works in the University of Otago Medical School's Injury Prevention Research Unit