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Hogrefe, Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, 2(44), p. 135-145, 2023

DOI: 10.1027/0227-5910/a000845

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Surveillance of Hospital-Presenting Intentional Self-Harm in Western Sydney, Australia, During the Implementation of a New Self-Harm Reporting Field

This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

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Abstract

Background: Hospital-presenting self-harm is a strong predictor of suicide and has substantial human and health service costs. Aims: We aimed to identify changes in case ascertainment after implementation of a new self-harm reporting field at a tertiary hospital in New South Wales, and to report event rates, demographic, and clinical characteristics. Method: Self-harm events presenting to the emergency department (October 2017 to August 2020) were identified using clinical documentation and a new reporting field. Changes in the frequency of self-harm in the period after implementation of the self-harm field were assessed through Poisson regression models. Results: A twofold increase in the frequency of self-harm was detected following the implementation of the new reporting field. The annual average age-standardized event rate of self-harm was 110.4 per 100,000 (120.8 per 100,000 for females; 100.1 per 100,000 for males). The highest rates by age and sex were for females aged 15–19 years (375 per 100,000) and males aged 20–24 years (175 per 100,000). Limitations: Self-harm identification relies on clinician coding practice, which is subject to variability and potential under-enumeration. Conclusion: These findings highlight the value of a self-harm reporting field in hospital record systems for accurate recording and long-term monitoring of self-harm event rates.