Dog bite Emergency department presentations in Brisbane metro south: Epidemiology and exploratory medical geography for targeted interventions

Abstract

Dog bites are a recognized public health issue due to their impact on human and animal health/welfare. This study aimed to investigate demographic and geographic disparities in the epidemiology of dog bites presentations reported to the emergency departments of the four main public hospitals in the Metro South region of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Dog bite patient hospitalization data geolocated to the street address were collected from clinical records management systems from the four main public hospitals in the Metro South Hospital Health Service region of Queensland for a 5-year period (ie. 01/07/2013 to 30/06/2017). We investigated the epidemiology of three clinical outcomes including probability of paediatric cases (paediatric vs. adult), probability of dog bites to the head (head injury vs. other injury), and probability of re-presentation to the ED following their initial dog bite (yes or no) by way of univariable then multivariable Bernoulli logistic regression models including patient postcode as a random effect. Residual semivariograms were created to identify spatial trends in the medical geography of dog bites and binomial geostatistical models were created to predict the probability of the outcomes of interest in Brisbane Metro south and surrounding suburbs. Our results demonstrate that compared to adult dog bite cases, paediatric dog bite cases were significantly associated with bites to the head or face or neck (OR 14.65, P < 0.001), bites to the lower body (OR 4.95, P = 0.035) and larger dogs (OR 0.25, P = 0.030 for small dogs). The probability of head injuries was greater in younger age groups (17–39 OR 0.25, P = 0.001; 40–64 OR 0.15, P = 0.001; 65-above OR 0.14, P = 0.029). Attacks by small dogs were more likely to inflict head wounds than large dogs (OR 6.12, P < 0.001). The probability of re-presentation was lower in patients bitten by medium sized dogs (OR 0.29, P = 0.027) than larger dogs. Our predictive maps showed significant clustering of paediatric case probability in the Logan city and Redlands councils associated with socioeconomic status of the places of residence. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate significant demographic and geographic heterogeneity in dog bite ED presentations. Public health interventions to reduce the burden of dog bites should be targeted to the populations most at-risk in the areas identified in this study.

Spectrum of human Pasteurella species infections in tropical Australia

“…Paediatric animal bite wounds are more likely to require surgical intervention, including general anaesthesia for adequate debridement and primary closure [ 8 ]. This was evident in the current study, with 61.9% receiving surgical debridement.…”

“…This was evident in the current study, with 61.9% receiving surgical debridement. Children are more likely to receive animal bites to the head and neck [ 8 , 9 ], due to patient size and behaviours of kissing and hugging dogs [ 9 ]. There were four dog bites to the face in this cohort, all of which required admission and surgical debridement.…”

A review of human dog‐bite injuries in Kitui South subcounty, Kenya (2017–2021)

“…These interventions and strategies would reduce dog-bite incidence and improve access to healthcare services in Kitui county. 23 Ikutha Level 4 Hospital is a government health facility, whereas MMH is supported by the Catholic church. The distribution of the cases and controls from the two hospitals represented wide coverage of the subcounty, serving six wards from the study subcounty and bordering regions.…”

“…Additionally, subcounty monitoring would be merited and this information could be used to develop targeted interventions and tailored strategies, such as increased efforts to raise awareness of responsible dog ownership and the availability of rabies vaccines in high burdened locations. These interventions and strategies would reduce dog‐bite incidence and improve access to healthcare services in Kitui county 23 …”

Spatial epidemiology of highly pathogenic avian influenza subtype H5N6 in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, 2016–2017

“…Thus, if all of the spatial effects for HPAI occurrence were included in the model, there would be no significant spatial clustering of residuals in the semi‐variogram. Thus, the range can be interpreted as the extent of spatial clustering after adjustment for the explained effects in the model (Liu et al., 2017; Pekin et al., 2021). To estimate the reduced range of the spatial clustering of unmeasured effects in the final non‐spatial model, residual spatial dependence of the null and final non‐spatial models was investigated by generating a semi‐variogram using geoR package in R software (Ribeiro et al., 2007).…”