Expanding the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System to Monitor All Nonfatal Injuries Treated in US Hospital Emergency Departments☆,☆☆
Section snippets
INTRODUCTION
Injuries contribute significantly to mortality and morbidity in the United States.1 In 1996, unintentional injury ranked fifth among the leading causes of death for the overall US population1 and was the leading cause of death for persons aged 1 to 34 years.2 In that year, homicide was the second leading cause of death for persons aged 15 to 24 years, and suicide was the ninth leading cause of death for the nation as a whole.1 For every injury-related death, there were an estimated 18
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The NEISS, maintained and operated by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), is an ongoing surveillance system routinely used to monitor consumer product-related injuries treated in US hospital EDs.10 There are currently 101 NEISS hospital EDs that represent a probability sample of all US and US territory hospitals that have at least 6 beds and provide 24-hour emergency services.11 Sixty-five of these hospitals comprised the NEISS sample in 1990. These 65 hospitals are nationally
RESULTS
From May 1, 1997, through July 31, 1997, 32,423 cases of injury were reported at the 21 hospitals in the pilot. Based on weighted NEISS data, we estimate 29.1 million nonfatally injured persons were treated in US hospital EDs in 1997 (rate of 108.6/1,000 population). Table 1 shows the percentage distributions and rates by sex and age.
Characteristic Number (in thousands) Empty Cell
DISCUSSION
Expanding the NEISS to monitor all types and causes of injuries treated in US EDs is feasible and advantageous. If instituted on an ongoing basis, this system could provide continuous surveillance of severe nonfatal injuries. Such monitoring would be useful to follow national trends, evaluate national interventions, and identify emerging injury problems. For any emerging injury problem, NEISS allows for timely identification of new cause-specific injury patterns and timely follow-up
Acknowledgements
We thank Dan Sosin, MD, MPH, and Joe Sniezek, MD, MPH, for help in conceptualizing this project; Bruce Jones for his thoughtful review of the manuscript; and Ballarami Valluru, MS, for statistical assistance. We also thank the NEISS supervisors and field staff for their diligence in collecting high-quality surveillance data and Helen Jakimenko of CDC for her assistance with data entry.
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Address for reprints: Kyran P Quinlan MD, MPH, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway NE, MS K-63, Atlanta, GA 30341-3714; 770-488-4648, fax 770-488-1317; E-mail [email protected].
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