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Background: Agricultural vehicles are a common sight on rural public roads. However, due to their larger mass (height, width, length, and weight), there are concerns about safety. The aim of this paper is to explore crash incidents on public roads of agricultural vehicles to determine the size of the problem, risk factors, and potential prevention strategies. Methods: A systematic review using the PRISMA guidelines was undertaken of peer-reviewed literature from Medline, Agricola, Scopus, PsycInfo, Science Direct, Web of Science, and SafetyLit. Crash incident rates, risk factors, and prevention strategies were extracted from the articles, and a review of quality was undertaken using McMasters guidelines. Results: Included in the review were 30 articles, with the majority from the United States. Crash risk rates, where reported, were low relative to agricultural vehicle use and when compared to overall road crash numbers. Crash risk factors included weather and visibility, age, personal and driving characteristics, road conditions, and event characteristics. Prevention strategies proposed were targeted at drivers and operators, vehicles, road design, driving behavior, and surveillance, policy, and technology. Conclusions: Overall, reported crash numbers involving large agricultural vehicles were low. Currently, there is limited capacity to calculate exposure rates compounded by the difficulties in identifying road incidents that involve agriculture vehicles. Better surveillance systems are required to improve our understanding of exposure and crash incident rates. Future research into the multiplicity of interrelated factors involved in agriculture vehicle crashes on roads, exposure rates, and evidence for the effectiveness of the prevention strategies is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primary aeromedical retrievals are a direct scene response to patients with a critical injury or illness using a medically equipped aircraft. They are often high‐acuity taskings. In Australia, information on primary retrieval taskings is housed by service providers, of which there are many across the country. This exploratory literature review aims to explore the contemporary peer‐reviewed literature on primary aeromedical retrievals in Australia. The focus is on adult primary aeromedical retrievals undertaken in Australia and clinical tools used in this pre‐hospital setting. Included articles were reviewed for research theme (clinical and equipment, systems and/or outcomes), data coverage and appraisal of the evidence. Of the 37 articles included, majority explored helicopter retrievals (n = 32), retrieval systems (n = 21), compared outcomes within a service (n = 10) and explored retrievals in the state of New South Wales (n = 19). Major topics of focus included retrieval of trauma patients and airway management. Overall, the publications had a lower strength of evidence because of the preponderance of cross‐sectional and case‐study methodology. This review provides some preliminary but piecemeal insight into primary retrievals in Australia through a localised systems lens. However, there are several areas for research action and service outcome improvements suggested, all of which would be facilitated through the creation of a national pre‐hospital and retrieval registry. The creation of a registry would enable consideration of the frequency and context of retrievals, comparison across services, more sophisticated data interrogation. Most importantly, it can lead to service and pre‐hospital and retrieval system strengthening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Falls in older adults represent a significant challenge in Australia; however, the focus is often on urban-dwelling older adults. The aim of this review was to explore the literature on falls epidemiology and falls prevention interventions ( FPI). Design A literature review was conducted searching Medline, Scopus, Social Sciences Citation Index, Google Scholar, Google and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare publication catalogue. Setting Rural and remote Australia. Participants Rural and remote community dwelling Australians aged 50 years and older. Intervention Literature review. Main outcome measures Falls epidemiology and effective falls prevention interventions. Results Twenty references were identified: 14 related to falls epidemiology and 7 to FPI. No significant differences were found between rural, remote and major cities residents in relation to falls hospitalisation, falls mortality or fall-related injuries sustained. There are a wide assortment of health professionals and non-health professionals who are involved in providing FPI in rural and remote Australia. However, there was limited information on the effectiveness of these interventions in influencing falls outcomes. Conclusion Few studies explored falls and their prevention in rural and remote Australia. The limited literature on the topic suggests that a change in focus to one that utilises existing services and resources will be required to create sustainable outcomes. Four areas are proposed for concentrated effort to reduce the impact of fall-related injury in rural and remote Australia: integration and collaboration among health professionals, promotion of physical activity across the lifespan, community involvement and ownership of interventions, and evaluation and publication of findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]