Dr Malcolm Franke¹, Dr Bishoy  Soliman¹

¹Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, Australia

Abstract:

Introduction

Climate change is leading to both increased mean temperatures and increased extreme weather events in Australia. While hospitalizations in Australia due to burns injuries have declined over the past two decades, people living in very remote areas are 4.3 times more likely to be hospitalized due to a thermal burn.(Duke et al., 2011; Health & Welfare, 2021). The effects of climate change are not distributed evenly, with the North and North-West of NSW having a disproportionate increase in warming compared to the rest of New South Wales (Bureau of Meteorology, 2022). We examined the data to investigate if there was any association between regions with the most significant warming over the past 2 decades and burns hospitalizations at a Burns Centre in NSW

Methods

Using data from the Bureau of Meteorology we identified the postcodes most affected by climate change warming in NSW over the past two decades. We then analysed admission data from the two State-wide Burns Units in NSW from 2003-2019, and stratified by postcode.

Results

There was a trend to increased burns hospitalizations from the postcodes most affected by climate change in NSW over the period 2003-2019.

Conclusion

While the incidence of major burns is decreasing in Australia, climate change may further increase the disproportionate burden of major burns injuries in those from rural and remote areas. More research into the effects of increased temperatures and extreme weather events on the incidence of major burns injuries is required.

References

Duke, J, Wood, F, Semmens, J, Spilsbury, K, Edgar, DW, Hendrie, D & Rea, S 2011, ‘A 26-year population-based study of burn injury hospital admissions in Western Australia’, Journal of burn care & research, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 379-386.

Health, AIO & Welfare 2021, ‘Thermal causes’, AIHW, Canberra.

Bureau of Meteorology (2022) ‘Average temperatures and Climate Data Online via ACORN-SAT Network’ Available at http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/data/

Biography:

Unaccredited Burns Registrar

Royal North Shore Hospital

Burns Injuries and Climate Change in NSW