Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Li-Hui Chen, MS, PhD¹, Margaret Warner, PhD¹, Patricia Barnes, MA², and Lois Fingerhut, MA³. (1) Office of Analysis and Epidemiology, National Center for Health Statistics (CDC), 3311 Toledo Rd, Hyattsville, MD 20782, 1-301-458-4446, eyx5@cdc.gov, (2) Division of Health Interview Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics (CDC), 3311 Toledo Rd., Hyattsville, MD 20782, (3) Office of Analysis and Evaluation, National Center for Health Statistics, 3311 Toledo Road, Hyattsville, MD 20782

The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is the only source of national, non-fatal injury data that is population based and that includes detailed information on injured persons and circumstances of injury episodes. As such, it is important to know how the estimates compare to ones from other data sources. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the estimates of motor vehicle traffic (MVT) injuries based on NHIS (1997-2003) differ from other national estimates and to understand the differences, if they exist. National estimates of MVT injuries were obtained from two national surveys conducted by NCHS- the NHIS and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, Emergency Department component (NHAMCS-ED) -and from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration's General Estimate System (GES). Injury rates per 1,000 population were calculated by year, age group and sex for the three data sources. Statistically significant differences were found between rates obtained from NHIS and NHAMCS-ED for all of the years except 1999. There were no differences between the rates obtained from NHIS and GES except for years 2000 and 2001. Rates estimated from both NHIS and GES decreased significantly from 1997 to 2003, and the slopes of the two trends were not significantly different. NHIS is a source of MVT injuries that is comparable to another often used national data source of MVT injuries: the GES. Although estimates from NHAMCS-ED yield significantly higher numbers, repeat visits for the same MVT crash are possible and therefore may explain some of the difference.

Learning Objectives:

• The audience should be able to understand the different methodologies of data collection among the three data sources (NHIS, NHAMCS-ED and GES).
• The audience should be able to describe the patterns of motor vehicle traffic (MVT) injuries from these 3the three data sources.
• The audience should be able to describe the possible reasons for the differences in MVT injury rates among the three sources.

Keywords: Motor Vehicles, National Health Interview Survey

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No