6C.003 Are we doing what works to prevent unintentional injury in Australian children?

Context In Australia, injury is the leading cause of death for children aged over 1 year and the highest cause of hospitalisation. There is good evidence for effectiveness of many existing injury prevention programs. Despite this evidence, there has been limited change in rates for specific injury areas and populations. To explore the gaps in injury prevention work, we examined whether Australian policy was consistent with best-practice injury prevention research. Process This work consisted of two stages. The first stage synthesised the evidence for unintentional child injury prevention including what is known to work to reduce inequities related to injury. Using this evidence, a framework was developed that included best practice measures and principles for child injury prevention. The second stage involved applying the framework to Australian policy documents to identify the extent the documents were 1) consistent with the evidence base, and 2) addressed specific inequities. Outcomes There is a gap in prioritising inequity, a lag in uptake of some effective interventions into policy and legislation and a need for policy documents to focus more on reducing the inequities related to unintentional child injury. While some documents stated priority populations, there is a gap in specific measures and commitment to resourcing for groups that experience an unequal burden of injury. Learning Outcomes The current work identified room for improvement in aligning Australian policy documents with best-practice interventions. This presentation will generate discussion around the actions required to ensure Australian policy is aligned with the evidence base.