Ranse J. (2013). Injury patterns and crowd behaviour at mass gathering events. Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll - St John Ambulance Australia (ACT), Canberra, ACT, 14th September.

1. INJURY PATTERNS AND CROWD BEHAVIOUR
AT MASS GATHERING EVENTS
Jamie Ranse
Assistant Professor
University of Canberra
www.jamieranse.com
twitter.com/jamieranse
youtube.com/jamieranse
linkedin.com/in/jamieranse

2. • Definition
• Conceptual model
• Workload characteristics
• Workload prediction
• Event design
• Event managers
• Case study
overview

3. definition
Class Subclass Persons Resources Example
Mass gathering
Small 200 – 1,500 Local area Local fair
Medium 1,500 – 10,000 Local area Local sports game
Large 10,000 – 100,000 Local +/- State Concert
Major mass gathering 100,000 – 250,000 State +/- Interstate
Music festival
Agricultural show
Super mass gathering 250,000 – 500,000 State and Interstate Motor sports event
Extreme mass
gathering
500,000 – 1,000,00
National +/-
international
Religious festival
Mega mass gathering 1,000,000+
National and
International
Olympics

4. conceptual model

5. workload characteristics
• Other extreme events
• Can we predict workload?
temperature
bounded or not
ETOH / drug availability
humidity
participant numbers
day / nightindoors / outdoors
crowd behaviour
• What factors influence workload / presentations?
level of onsite care
age of participants
duration
geography

6. workload characteristics and conceptual model

7. workload prediction
• Why predict workload?
• What to predict?
– Patient presentation rate (PPR)
0.14 to 90/1,000 (majority 0.5 and 2.6/1,000)
– Transport to hospital rate (TTHR)
0.01 to 0.55/1,000
– Referral to hospital rate
5% - 10% of PPR
• How?
– Predictive models
– Historical prediction

8. event design
• Crowd behaviour
– Music festivals
– Spaces
• Patient access

9. event managers
• Health service
– What level of service do you need?
– Health risk assessment

10. • Event managers
– Overall risk management
– Patient information: confidentiality v duty of care
event managers

11. implications
• Pre-ambulance (PPR)
• Pre-hospital (TTHR)

12. implications
• Pre-ambulance (PPR)
• Pre-hospital (TTHR)
• Emergency Department
(RTHR)

13. implications
• Pre-ambulance
• Pre-hospital
• Emergency Department
• Hospital
– surgery

14. case study

15. To understand the characteristics of people who
present as patients to on-site health care at outdoor
music festivals in Australia
aim

16. • Retrospective review of patient report forms
• 26 outdoor music festivals
• Four different states of Australia
• Minimum data set
– Illness
– Injury
– Environmental
– Mental Health
design and setting

17. • 4950 presentations
• Almost two thirds were female (n=3087, 62.4%)
• The mean age of all patient presentations was 21.3
(±5.8) years
• The majority of patients (n=3875, 78.3%) were ≤25
years of age
demographics

18. • The majority of patient presentations (n=2766,
55.9%) presented with illness related concerns
• The risk of illness was 1.7 times (OR=1.71; 95% CI
1.51-1.94; p<0.001) higher for females than males
in the ≤25 year age group
• Most common presenting problem was headache
(n=1389, 52.9%).
• Pain (n=264 10%), asthma (n=216 8.2%), and
nausea and vomiting (n=211 8%)
illness

19. • The risk of a female sustaining an injury was
almost half (OR=0.54; 95% CI 0.47-0.62; p<0.001)
that of males
• The main types of injury presentations were
superficial lacerations (n=281; 20.4%); sprain or
strains (n=268; 19.2%), and head injuries
(concussion) (n=168; 11.9%)
• Crushing injuries; blisters and foreign bodies;
external to eye was significantly higher for
females than males
injury

20. • Alcohol related presentations most common (n=250
32.8%)
• Substance related (n=135 17.7%),
• Combined alcohol and substance use (n=125 16.4%)
• Heat exhaustion more prevalent for females (p=<0.001),
while substance related presentations more prevalent for
males (p=<0.001)
environment

21. • Gender didn’t demonstrate a significant risk for
mental health related presentations
• 29 cases overall: average of one per event
mental health

22. • Most patients returned to the event
• Environmental-related category highest TTHR
outcome

23. INJURY PATTERNS AND CROWD BEHAVIOUR
AT MASS GATHERING EVENTS
Jamie Ranse
Assistant Professor
University of Canberra
www.jamieranse.com
twitter.com/jamieranse
youtube.com/jamieranse
linkedin.com/in/jamieranse