Diving-related injury (all ages)

July 2008

There was a total of 282 emergency department (ED) presentations and 371 hospital admissions related to diving injury among persons aged 0-85 years, recorded in the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD) and the Victorian Admitted Episodes (VAED) over the 5-year period 2002-2006.

Frequency: Table 1 shows the annual frequency of ED presentations and hospital admissions by year. The frequency of diving injury varied over the 5-years period with the highest incidence reported in 2006.

Table 1: Diving-related injury ED presentations and hospital admissions by year

Source: VAED & VEMD Jan '02 - Dec '06

Age: The peak age group for ED presentations was 10-14 years (26%), followed by 15-19 years (20%) whereas the peak age group for hospital admissions was 15-19 years (19%) and 20-24 years (19%) (Figure 1).

Source: VAED & VEMD Jan '02 – Dec ‘06
Figure 1: Diving-related injury by age groups and level of severity

Gender: Males accounted for 77% of ED presentations and 78% of hospitalisations for diving - related injuries .

Nature of injury: Among ED presentations, open wound (24%) was the most common injury, followed by sprain/strain (22%) and superficial injury such as bruises and abrasions (11%). Among hospital admissions, fracture was the most frequent injury (37%), followed by open wound (15%) and dislocation, sprain and strain (9%).

Body region: For both ED presentations and hospitalisations, injuries to the head, face and neck were most frequent, accounting for 62% and 63% of all injuries, respectively (Figure 2 & Figure 3).

Source: VEMD Jan '02 - Dec '06 Figure 2: Diving-related injury ED presentations by body site injured (n=282)

Source: VAED Jan '02-Dec' 06 Figure 3: Diving-related injury hospital admissions by body site injured (n=371)

Body of water: Among ED presentations, most of the injuries occurred in a swimming pool (69%), followed by the beach, ocean, sea (6%) and the river, lake, waterhole (6%). Among hospital admissions, the majority of injuries occurred in the lake and ocean (13%), and by the beach (13%), followed by dam and pond (11%). The location of injury was unspecified in 16% of ED presentations and 17% of hospital admissions.

Length of stay: Among the 371 admissions, 66% had a length of stay of less than 2 days. Twenty-five percent were hospitalised for 2-7 days, 6% for 8-30 days and 3% for more than 31 days.

Prevention: Ensure that the water environment is safe and free of obstacles before diving. Divers need to be aware of the dangers of jumping into shallow water. Also, the presence of a lifeguard or trainer, as well as teaching proper diving techniques could reduce the overall number of diving-related injuries.

Further information: Further information is available from the following websites:
The Royal Life Saving Society of Australia : www.sports.det.nsw.edu.au/diveinfo/facnotesupsec.pdf
Youth Safe: www.youthsafe.org/images/pubs_resources/safer_diving.pdf

Data source: The Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset (VAED): January 2002 to December 2006 (5 years). The Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD): January 2002 to December 2006 (5 years)
Restrictions: VAED readmissions within 30 days have been excluded to avoid double counting.
Search Strategy: Cases in the VAED data were selected using code “W16 - Diving or jumping into water - other injury, not drowning”. Cases in the VEMD were selected by searching those cases with the text term “diving” and “dove” in the 250 character “description of injury event” field.