Injury to Maori. I: Fatalities

Our aim was to determine the significance in Maori of injury in relation to other health problems, to describe the leading causes of injury, and to determine age specific rates for major classes of injury.

We used New Zealand Health Information Services mortality data files. The New Zealand Census classification of 'Sole-Maori' was used to determine injury mortality rates.

For more than three contiguous decades of life (1-34 yrs) injuries were the leading cause of death. For all age groups combined, unintentional injury accounted for 75% of injury deaths, suicide 17%, and assault 7%. The leading mechanism of death was motor vehicle traffic crashes (49%). Occupants of motor vehicles accounted for the majority of the victims. The occupant fatality rate remained relatively constant for all age groups from 15-24 years. The second most common mechanism of death was suffocation (13%), 76% of which were self-inflicted, all of these being hangings.

There is a need for government agencies with a mandate for injury prevention to develop specific injury prevention goals for Maori.