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Non-UK residents will suffer a new stamp duty land tax (SDLT) surcharge on dwelling purchases in England and Northern Ireland from 1 April 2021. The 2% surcharge will apply in [...]

Injuries are a leading preventable cause of disease burden in Australia. Understanding how injuries vary by geographical location is important to guide health promotion planning. Therefore, the geographical and temporal distribution of injury across Western Australia from 2009 to 2012 is explored. Three Western Australian health datasets were linked and the expected number of injury cases per postcode calculated. A Standardised Injury Ratio was calculated by comparing the observed and expected number of injury cases. Priority areas and associated injury mechanisms were identified by postcode based on injury rates and temporal trends. Injury levels varied across health region, health district and postcode. All nonmetropolitan regions had at least one health district classified as High or Medium‐High priority. In contrast, neither metropolitan health region had health districts in these categories. Adopting the finer postcode level of analysis showed localised injury priority areas, even within health districts not classified as High or Medium‐High injury areas. Postcodes classified as High or Medium‐High injury priority were located alongside those with lower priority categories. Injury prevention priority areas had consistent trends both geographically and over time. Finer scale analysis can provide public health policy makers with more robust information to plan, evaluate and support a range of injury prevention programs. The use of linked data systems and spatial analysis can assist health promotion decision‐makers and practitioners by demonstrating area‐based differences in injury prevention allowing effective targeting of limited resources to populations at the highest risk of injury.

The systemic responses triggered by burns have been shown to include effects on the gastrointestinal tract. However, it is not clear if these changes lead to long-term gastrointestinal morbidity in patients with burns. The aim of this study was to assess if pediatric burns are associated with increased hospital use for gastrointestinal diseases after discharge for the initial injury. A population-based longitudinal study was performed using linked hospital and death data from Western Australia for children younger than 15 years when hospitalized for a first burn injury (n = 10,436) between 1980 and 2012, along with a frequency-matched noninjury comparison cohort, randomly selected from Western Australia's birth registrations (n = 40,819). Crude admission rates and cumulative length of stay for digestive diseases were calculated. Negative binomial and Cox proportional hazards regression modeling were used to generate incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and hazard ratios, respectively. After discharge, the pediatric burn cohort experienced twice the rate of gastrointestinal disease admissions (IRR, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.03, 1.56–2.65), spent over twice as long in hospital (IRR, 95% CI: 2.23, 1.67–2.98), and had a higher rate of first-time or incident gastrointestinal disease admissions (hazard ratio, 95% CI: 1.18, 1.08–1.29) when compared with the uninjured cohort, after adjusting for demographic and preexisting health factors. Children who experience a burn injury hospitalization are at increased risk of postburn hospital service use for gastrointestinal diseases when compared with uninjured children.

ObjectiveTo count and characterise injuries resulting from legal intervention by US law enforcement personnel and injury ratios per 10 000 arrests or police stops, thus expanding discussion of excessive force by police beyond fatalities.DesignEcological.PopulationThose injured during US legal police intervention as recorded in 2012 Vital Statistics mortality census, 2012 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project nationwide inpatient and emergency department samples, and two 2015 newspaper censuses of deaths.Exposure2012 and 2014 arrests from Federal Bureau of Investigation data adjusted for non-reporting jurisdictions; street stops and traffic stops that involved vehicle or occupant searches, without arrest, from the 2011 Police Public Contact Survey (PPCS), with the percentage breakdown by race computed from pooled 2005, 2008 and 2011 PPCS surveys due to small case counts.ResultsUS police killed or injured an estimated 55 400 people in 2012 (95% CI 47 050 to 63 740 for cases coded as police involved). Blacks, Native Americans and Hispanics had higher stop/arrest rates per 10 000 population than white non-Hispanics and Asians. On average, an estimated 1 in 291 stops/arrests resulted in hospital-treated injury or death of a suspect or bystander. Ratios of admitted and fatal injury due to legal police intervention per 10 000 stops/arrests did not differ significantly between racial/ethnic groups. Ratios rose with age, and were higher for men than women.ConclusionsHealthcare administrative data sets can inform public debate about injuries resulting from legal police intervention. Excess per capita death rates among blacks and youth at police hands are reflections of excess exposure. International Classification of Diseases legal intervention coding needs revision.

Background: The statistical linkage key (SLK-581) is a common tool for record linkage in Australia, due to its ability to provide some privacy protection. However, newer privacy-preserving approaches may provide greater privacy protection, while allowing high-quality linkage.Objective: To evaluate the standard SLK-581, encrypted SLK-581 and a newer privacy-preserving approach using Bloom filters, in terms of both privacy and linkage quality.Method: Linkage quality was compared by conducting linkages on Australian health datasets using these three techniques and examining results. Privacy was compared qualitatively in relation to a series of scenarios where privacy breaches may occur.Results: The Bloom filter technique offered greater privacy protection and linkage quality compared to the SLK-based method commonly used in Australia.Conclusion: The adoption of new privacy-preserving methods would allow both greater confidence in research results, while significantly improving privacy protection.