Funding outcome

Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death and disability among young people. One of the main ways to prevent injuries is by teaching people about common dangers and prevention strategies. However, we do not know much about how to prevent injuries in young people who are new to Canada. Young newcomers have unique experiences, like language barriers or having to learn a new culture, and these might play a role in their risk of unintentional injury. Young people make up more than a fifth of the newcomers who have come to Alberta between 2016 and 2023, but little work is being done to understand their experience with unintentional injuries. This project aims to find out if young immigrants who have come to Alberta in the past five years are at a higher risk of emergency department visits for unintentional injuries and what factors may help explain that risk. We will also explore if different types of immigrant youth, such as refugees, face different risks and why those differences exist. We have two main goals for this project. The first is to review data from countries similar to Canada, such as Australia and the United Kingdom, to understand what is already known about the topic. We will then address the second goal of the project by examining data from the Canadian Census and emergency departments across Alberta, to see what relationships exist between newcomer youth and unintentional injury risk. Through this research, we will obtain valuable information about young Albertan immigrants. This will help make specific policies and injury prevention education strategies for young newcomers. It will also be able to teach different community members, such as those working in emergency departments and public organizations focused on immigrant safety and well-being. We will use the results of our research to write easy-to-understand reports so newcomer parents have research-supported resources to learn and protect their children from unintentional injuries.