Barell Matrix - was it a successful enterprise? (a 5 year review)

Background/Purpose

The Barell Matrix was built in order to simplify and unify the process of selecting diagnostic codes to describe an injury.

Five years after its publication, this abstract reviews the literature for matrix applications to evaluate its success.

Methods

"Pubmed" and "Google-scholar" were used to search for "Barell Matrix". Results were examined to ensure matrix was significant to contents then sorted by various characteristics of matrix use. Data was entered into a Microsoft-excel worksheet and analyzed by SPSS15.

Results/Outcomes

40 qualifying papers had been identified between 2002-2007. Thirty-five (87.5%) had been in peer reviewed journals. Annual number of publications increased from 3 in 2003 to 10 in 2007.

65% were epidemiological, 15% were methodological papers. Matrix was used both for selection and for classification of cases.

Epidemiological papers reported studies of - traffic, school, sport, and occupational injuries. Other studies included injury in special populations such as children with Autism, mental retardation and pregnant women. Several reports of economic assessment based on matrix categories were recorded. One methodological manuscript proposed using the matrix as the basis for severity measures. A similar ICD-10 based matrix was constructed for injury mortality data.

CDC, a supporter of matrix creation, is using it in routine reports. The State and Territorial Injury Prevention Directors Association (STIPDA) incorporated the matrix in their recommendations for systematic analysis of hospital discharge data.

Conclusions

The Barell Matrix is gradually gaining stability and popularity in injury research.

Nevertheless, there are issues that remain to be addressed for future enhanced utilization.