Injury related to telephones and music players (all ages)

July 2008

There were at least 498 presentations to hospital emergency departments in Victoria for injuries associated with telephones, mobile phones, stereos, radios and other music playing devices over the five year period from January 2002 to December 2006. This represents an average of 100 cases of phone- or music device- related injuries per year.

Frequency: As can be seen in the table below, the number of recorded injuries increased each year between 2002 and 2006. Much of this increase is likely due to an increase in the number of Victorian hospitals contributing injury data over the period in combination with continued improvements in the quality of recorded data. However an increase in the popularity and usage of phones and music players over this time period may also contribute.

Table 1: Phone and music player related injuries by year

Source: VEMD, Jan 2002 to Dec 2006

Age: The relationship between age and phone- and music player- related injuries is not particularly clear cut. The highest frequency of emergency department presentations were among young children in the 0-4 year old group. After age 4, the frequency of injury followed a general downward trend to a low point among 65-69 year olds. From the age of 70 presentations begin to increase again back to the rates of younger adults.

Source: VEMD, Jan 2002 to Dec 2006
Figure 1: Phone and music player related emergency department presentations by age (n=498)

Gender: Males were overrepresented in phone- and music player- related injuries, accounting for 59% of presentations to emergency departments.

Cause: Falls were the cause of 38% of cases, while ‘collision with an object' caused 31%. Being cut or pierced (7%), collision with a person (5%) and exposure to electricity (2%) were less common causes of injury.

Body region: No one body region was especially affected, with injuries to the lower limb (22%), upper limb (15%), head (16%) and face (13%) all accounting for similar proportions of emergency department presentations. Injuries to the hands (8%) and torso (2%) were less common, while in 11% of cases multiple regions were affected.

Place of occurrence: Most phone- and music player injuries occurred in the home (76%). Next most common places were ‘road or street' (5%) and ‘trade or service area' (4%).

Source: VEMD, Jan 2002 to Dec 2006
Figure 2: Place of occurrence of phone and music player related injuries (n=498)

Activity: ‘Leisure activity' was the activity type most frequently involved in a phone- or music player- related injury, accounting for 50% of presentations. The next most common activity group was ‘vital activity', for example sleeping, resting or eating (9%) followed by working for an income (5%) and non-paid work (2%). Various other specified activities accounted for 19% of presentations while in 15% of cases the activity was not recorded. Note however, that leisure is often used as a default code and encompasses ‘incidental activities'.

Type of device: In 61% of cases a ‘phone' was identified as the device associated with the injury, while a further 12% of cases specifically noted a ‘mobile' phone. ‘Stereo' was noted for 12% of cases, ‘CD' for 8%, ‘radio' for 4% and ‘headphones' or ‘headset' for 1%. The remaining 2% of cases were related to other audio devices. These results should not be taken as implying that the phone or music player in each case was the direct cause of injury, but simply that the devices were involved in the injury in some way or were being used at the time.

Discharge status: 425 cases (85%) were treated in the emergency department and discharged to home, while 70 cases (15%) required admission to a hospital ward for further treatment.

Data source: Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD) Jan 2002 to Dec 2006 (5 years)

Search Strategy: Music and phone device related injuries were identified through a text search of VEMD emergency department presentation narratives for the terms: phone, mobile, mp3, ipod, discman, walkman, radio, stereo, music, headphones, headset, song and sing. Cases where the narrative indicated the injury resulted from a collision with a phone box, telephone pole or phone book were excluded from analysis, as were cases where the use of a music or phone device appeared irrelevant to the injury.