eLetters

172 e-Letters

  • Trends in the drowning mortality rate in Iran

    The article "Trends in the drowning mortality rate in Iran" by Pegah Derakhshan et al. in Injury Prevention · August 2020 DOI: 10.1136/injuryprev-2019-043225 is a valuable contribution to understanding the trend of drowning in Iran. However, It is true that the authors of the article used statistical methods to estimate the levels and trends of drowning mortality rate based on Death Registry System (DRS) data, which is known to be incomplete and subject to misclassification. In Iran, data sources for attributing fatal and non-fatal drowning are include DRS, FMS and INDR. However, it is important to note that drowning incidents and fatalities are universally underreported in the Iran.
    The Death Registry System (DRS) is a new system, managed by Iran’s Ministry of Health, is currently being expanded to the whole of Iran. Records for this registry system are also generated using death certificate information. If not available – by verbal autopsy. DRS that information is collected from records generated by many other sources: rural health house, health and treatment centres (rural, urban), hospitals, register offices (1). Previous study resulted that DRS registry reported 60% of all rural cases, while the records reported a slight majority of urban cases (about 51%) (2).
    Iran's Forensic Medicine Organization manages the Forensic Medical System (FMS), which is used to identify many injury-related deaths in the country. The FMS records are based on inf...

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  • Author Response to Missed Literature

    Thank you for reading the study. We appreciate your feedback and the suggestion of papers to include.

    The Miller et al. 2021 paper was not yet indexed in EconLit at the time of the systematic review pull; therefore, was not included. However, even if we had identified the study it would not have been included in the final list of manuscripts as it does not include original analysis but rather combines previous estimates with new counts.

    The Yang et al. 2014 paper was excluded during review as it included non-original analysis. This paper used several estimates from previously published literature and applied to Iowa counts.

    Based on this response, we are issuing an erratum that clarifies that our manuscript only included research with original costs as inputs or outputs.

    You are correct that we omitted several non-peer reviewed studies. In the study we state, “This review was limited to peer-reviewed publications and excluded books, non-peer reviewed publications, white papers and dissertations.”

  • Missed Literature

    This review has not considered several relevant previously published items. These include:

     TR Miller, MA Cohen, D Swedler, B Ali, D Hendrie. Incidence and Costs of Personal and Property
    Crimes in the United States, 2017, Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, 12:1, 24-54, 2021.

     JZ Yang, TR Miller, N Zhang, B LeHew, C Peek-Asa. Incidence and Cost of Sexual Violence in Iowa,
    American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 47:2, 198-202, 2014.

    It also omits mention of Californian studies on the costs of sexual violence and on the costs of firearm
    injury in Santa Clara County that are not in the peer-review journal literature, as well as the firearm
    injury cost article in Mother Jones, and several other city firearm injury cost studies available on the
    web.

  • Dementia after traumatic spinal cord injury: difference in the risk of quadriplegia as compared to paraplegia

    Correspondence:
    Nearly 60% of patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) experience different degrees of cognitive dysfunction, including impairment of memory and abstract reasoning.[1] A retrospective cohort study using Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database revealed that SCI significantly increased the likelihood of dementia.[2] This result aligns with previous clinical reports stating that patients with SCI frequently develop long-term cognitive impairments.[1]

    I read the article “Savings of loss-of-life expectancy and lifetime medical costs from prevention of spinal cord injuries: analysis of nationwide data followed for 17 years” [3] with deep interest. The study investigators have reported the outcomes from a comprehensive and long-term follow-up effort exploring the impact of traumatic SCI in Taiwan. In this study, Lien et al. classified traumatic SCI into traumatic quadriplegia and paraplegia with different mechanisms of injury. They reported that traumatic quadriplegia incurs higher lifetime medical costs than traumatic paraplegia.[3] Upon comparing the clinical characteristics of patients with traumatic quadriplegia and paraplegia, the prevalence of dementia after quadriplegia resulting from motor vehicle accidents (MVA) was found to be higher than that after paraplegia resulting from MVA (3.7% vs. 1.5%, p < 0.05).[3] The strength of this study lies in its comprehensive data on the SCI level, mechanisms of injury, and medical...

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  • Partner violence during the COVID-19 pandemic: an emergency into the emergency

    Partner violence during the COVID-19 pandemic: an emergency into the emergency

    Pietro Ferrara, MD 1 *
    Luciana Albano, MD 2

    Affiliation
    1. Center for Public Health Research, University of Milano – Bicocca, Monza, Italy
    2. Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Naples, Italy

    * Corresponding author:
    Pietro Ferrara
    Center for Public Health Research, University of Milan - Bicocca
    Via Cadore 48, I-20900 Monza, Italy
    Phone +39 (0)39-2333097/8
    p_ferrara@alice.it

    To the Editor,
    With interest, we read the publication by Jetelina and coll., titled “Changes in intimate partner violence during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA” [1], in which authors described changes in patterns of intimate partner violence (IPV) during lockdown restriction implemented in response to novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.
    Similarly in Italy, a significant increase of IPV cases was recorded as early as the first weeks of March, when social isolation forced people to stay at home after the rapid spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Here, the government instituted the free phone number 1522 as help line for IPV victims, with the aim to reach mainly women, who always experience the greater burden of domestic violence and abuse [2]. The National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) rel...

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  • False assumption that all new cyclists previously drove
    Mark Kaepplein

    Your air pollution reduction benefit is based on a very poor assumption of all new cyclists were former drivers (per Rabl and De Nazelle) could be no more wrong than in NYC with the biggest public transit system in the US, lowest per capita car ownership and miles driven of any major city, and where over 56% of workers use public transit, and over 10% walk. Even the estimated 30% who drive or cab to work are unlikely to...

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  • The challenge of spinal cord injury in Post-earthquake Nepal
    Kumar Paudel

    On 25 April 2015 Nepal witnessed a huge earthquake of 7.8 magnitude claiming over 8000 lives and injuring more than 23,000[1].Those injured incurred either crush injuries, fractures or head and spinal cord trauma. WHO estimates,over 400 people have sustained spinal cord injuries owing to earthquake.[2]. They have become either paralyzed or developed weakness of limbs (paraparesis) extending from neck downward (quadriparesi...

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  • Recompression in water with air supply at shallow depth cannot be superior to breathing pure oxygen on surface
    yavuz aslan

    Sir,

    We read with interest the article named 'Prevention and treatment of decompression sickness using training and in-water recompression among fisherman divers in Vietnam' that was published in Injury Prevention 2016 February issue. We want to share our opinion about some parts of the article, especially in three subjects.

    It was mentioned that, the aim of the study was to investigate the impact o...

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  • A Comment on May et al. (2002)
    Gary D. Kleck

    A survey of jail inmates done by J P May, D Hemenway, and A Hall indicated that, among those who admitted to having been shot, 91% reported having gone to the hospital for treatment. This comment explains why this finding cannot be taken seriously.

    Put yourself in the position of a jail inmate who was part of this survey. Most jail inmates are awaiting trial. They are the most legally vulnerable of all crimina...

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  • The author replies
    M Kary

    I welcome Stevenson's participation and thank him for providing the counterpoint to my commentary.[1, 2] Naturally I object to much of it, starting with the title. We are not discussing the importance of good science, rather what makes for it....

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