A population study on Indigenous hospitalisations for interpersonal violence Lynn B. Meuleners 1,2 PhD, Senior Research Fellow Andy H. Lee 1 PhD, Professor Delia Hendrie 1 MSc, Lecturer Michelle Fraser 1 BHealthPromotion 1 School of Public Health, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box U 1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia. 2 Corresponding author. Email: l.meuleners@curtin.edu.au Abstract. Indigenous people experience a disproportionately high burden of interpersonal violence. This paper compares the demographic characteristics and injury circumstances of male and female Indigenous Australians hospitalised due to interpersonal violence in Western Australia over a 15-year period. A population-based, retrospective study of all hospitalisations due to interpersonal violence for Indigenous people in WA was undertaken using the linked 1990–2004 data from the WA Mortality Database and the Hospital Morbidity Data System. The majority of Indigenous hospitalisations were for females (56.3%). Female victims were more likely to be admitted due to maltreatment and rape (11.9%). Age profiles, residential location and length of hospital stay were similar between both sexes. The results indicate higher rates of hospitalisation and readmissions for interpersonal violence in WA among Indigenous females than males. There may potentially be different risk factors for each sex and further investigation will have public health benefits. What is known about the topic? Indigenous people experience a disproportionately high burden of interpersonal violence compared with non-Indigenous people. In contrast to the general population, Indigenous females are hospitalised for interpersonal violence at a higher rate than their male counterparts. What does this paper add? This study used population-based data to compare the different characteristics between Indigenous male and female hospitalisations due to interpersonal violence in Western Australia. Females were hospitalised at nearly 1.3 times the rate of males and comprised the majority (65%) of hospitalisations for those admitted more than once. What are the implications for practitioners? The results provide policy makers and planners with a basis for making informed decisions on where to specifically target resources so as to reverse the increasing burden of interpersonal violence on Indigenous communities. In addition, more rigorous prospective investigation is required to determine the contributing factors of interpersonal violence hospitalisations for Indigenous people. In Australia, Indigenous people experience a disproportionately high burden of interpersonal violence compared with non-Indigenous people. 1 Interpersonal violence contributes significant costs to the community in terms of personal and health system costs. 2 It is of considerable concern to the public health sector, as rates are increasing among the Indigenous population. 1 Previous studies have reported a much higher risk of victimisation, 1 hospitalisation 3 and death due to interpersonal violence for Indigenous Australians. 4 Alarmingly, a recent Western Australian study reported that hospitalisations due specifically to intimate partner violence were 83 times more likely in Indigenous than non-Indigenous people aged 15 years and over. 5 Multiple causes are involved in Indigenous violence. The contributing factors include being disadvantaged economically, loss of culture 6 and spiritual identity, and broken family ties, 7 while alcohol and substance misuse are also found to play a crucial role in exacerbating violence. 6,8 Indigenous women, although constituting only a small percentage of the adult population, are at particularly high risk of violence, being hospitalised for assault at 31 times the rate of non-Indigenous women, 3 and are nearly 11 times more likely to die from an assault. 9 In some Queensland communities, Aboriginal women were 16 to 25 times more likely to be raped than non-Indigenous women. 10 Studies have also reported that, in contrast to the general population, Indigenous females are being hospitalised for interpersonal violence at a higher rate than their male counterparts. 3,11 Because interpersonal violence impacts so heavily on Indigenous Australians, it is important to investigate characteristics for violence victimisation and whether they differ Ó AHHA 2010 10.1071/AH09666 0156-5788/10/010123 CSIRO PUBLISHING Feature www.publish.csiro.au/journals/ahr Australian Health Review, 2010, 34, 123–126 Health Service Utilisation