ARCHIVED - Health Research - Investing in Canada's Future 2003-2004

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Injuries

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is the Government of Canada’s premier agency for health research.

Through CIHR, the Government of Canada is investing nearly $21 million in research on how best to prevent and manage injuries.

The Facts

• In 1999, 13,750 Canadians died as a result of injuries. A quarter of a million people were admitted to hospital because of injury between April 1, 2000 and March 31, 2001.
• Injuries are the leading cause of death for Canadians between ages 1 and 44, and the fourth leading cause of death for Canadians of all ages. They are also a leading cause of premature disability.
• Unintentional injuries are responsible for about a quarter of all deaths in the Aboriginal population.
• Falls are the leading accidental cause of death among seniors.
• The majority of unintentional injuries are preventable.
• Unintentional injuries result from falls, motor vehicle crashes, railway and pedestrian collisions, drowning and suffocation, poisoning and fires.
• The economic burden of injuries in Canada, both intentional and unintentional, is more than $12.7 billion each year in direct and indirect costs, coming fourth after cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal conditions, including arthritis, and cancer.
• Falls - mostly among the elderly and children - account for about 40% of the total cost of unintentional injuries, with motor vehicle accidents accounting for another 20%. These are also the most significant cause of permanent disability or death from injury.

Research

Strengthening the Health Care System

• Improving how wounds heal could save the health care system millions of dollars every year. Dr. Bosco Chan, of the Robarts Research Institute at the University of Western Ontario, is receiving support from CIHR to help design and validate new ways to dress wounds that promote healing by incorporating bioma-terials that gradually release healing agents.
• Emergency room physicians regularly see injuries to feet, ankles, knees, necks, and brains. Now they can treat these injuries more consistently, thanks to decision rules for using X-rays developed by Dr. Ian Stiell, a CIHR Distinguished Investigator. His Ottawa Ankle and Knee Rules and the Canadian C-Spine and CT Head Rules have improved diagnostic accuracy for these patients while saving hospitals money.

Research

Improving Health

• Every year, some 5,000 Canadians die and many more are injured falling on stairs. Preventing these falls can help seniors continue to live in their own homes. With support from CIHR, Dr. Geoffrey Fernie and Dr. Brian Maki have developed the LifeRail, a stair rail that prevents falls by compensating for seniors’ diminished grips and reduced arm strength. Their findings on safety have influenced building standards and been incorporated into construction codes.
• Hockey may be Canada’s national pastime, but concussions shouldn’t be. Dr. David Goodman, of Simon Fraser University, is leading a CIHR team of researchers and community organizations looking for effective ways to reduce these concussions. They have already found that head injury rates are higher than expected, but that it takes volunteers with a high level of contact with the team or trained observers to detect the concussions. Their findings are the first step toward developing ways to reduce the rate of concussions among young hockey players, and to make sure that hockey doesn’t become a game with life-long repercussions. genes
• Anywhere from dozens to hundreds of express themselves differently in the brains of people who attempt to commit suicide and who have suffered from major depression, according to research conducted by CIHR-funded Dr. Gustavo Turecki, Director of the McGill Group for Suicide Studies at the Douglas Hospital in Montreal. Learning more about the genetic foundation of suicide could help researchers develop new prevention strategies.
• Knowing how best to respond to child abuse and neglect is a challenge that social service agencies grapple with. Now Dr. Nico Trocmé, a CIHR-funded researcher from the University of Toronto, and his team have found that severe physical harm makes up only four per cent of child abuse cases. They suggest that child welfare programs that are heavily skewed toward rapid intervention to prevent physical harm may be failing to meet the needs of a larger group of children who suffer emotional and psychological abuse on a regular basis. His findings have implications for child welfare agencies throughout Canada.

The CIHR Institute

CIHR’s efforts on injury research are being coordinated by Dr. Morris Barer, Scientific Director of the Institute of Health Services and Policy Research and Dr. Cy Frank, Scientific Director of the Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis. In addition, other Institutes, such as the Institute of Aging have identified injury as a priority focus.

The Partners

CIHR recognizes the unique role of, and works closely with, all partners in the research process. It is working with the Canadian Injury Research Network (CIRNet), SMARTRISK, the Insurance Bureau of Canada and other partners on Listening for Direction on Injury, an initiative to bring together leading Canadian researchers and decision-makers to identify strategic priorities for research, capacity building, knowledge translation and infrastructure support related to injury research. The initiative will seek to identify stakeholders and partners and integrate research agendas to result in a more coherent approach to the support of injury research in Canada.

The People

Fear of falling was keeping Barbara Wilkins-Minton off the tennis court and in her seat. But now the ball is in her court, thanks to a proactive fall prevention program.

“I felt that I wanted to play tennis again, but my balance was off,” says Mrs. Wilkins-Minton.

So her family physician referred her to the Falls Program, part of the Specialized Geriatrics Services at Sunnybrook & Women’s College Health Sciences Centre.

The program applies knowledge gained from CIHR-funded research into balance and assistive technology carried out by Drs. Geoff Fernie and Brian Maki. Seniors learn to keep their balance and prevent falls, which both enables them to continue living longer independently and improves their quality of life.

For six weeks, two times per week, Mrs. Wilkins-Minton practiced stretching, walking on a treadmill, standing and sitting without using her hands, balancing in parallel bars, all to improve her balance. She used ankle weights and a stationary bicycle to improve her muscle strength.

“I learned how to coordinate my body a little bit better,” Mrs. Wilkins-Minton says. “I did new exercises with my physiotherapists, who were all quite fantastic.”

There were eight people in Mrs. Wilkins-Minton’s group – including a 92-year-old woman who took what she learned about preventing falls on a trip to California –solo!

Mrs. Wilkins-Minton has nothing but praise for the program.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to better your health,” she says. “Health is not only in your body, but in your mind. The physiotherapists associated with this program are well attuned to this.”

Now Mrs. Wilkins-Minton is ready to hit the tennis courts, where she is fully confident she will beat her husband Bill, age 81 – after all, he didn’t take the program!

About the Canadian Institutes of Health Research

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research is the Government of Canada’s premier agency for health research. Its objective is to excel, according to internationally accepted standards of scientific excellence, in the creation of new knowledge and its translation into improved health for Canadians, more effective health services and products and a strengthened Canadian health care system.

For more information, visit: www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca.