Positions |
11 December 2007 |
| SWOV proposes using the 'severely injured' as road safety indicator | |
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Over the past decades, the number of hospital in-patients as consequence of road crashes has declined far less steeply than the number of road deaths. Analysis of the data on which this finding was based, led SWOV to the conclusion that in-patients are not always severely injured. For example, the registered numbers of in-patients also include the crash casualties that are kept in hospital overnight for observation, but who do not actually have any injuries. SWOV concludes that, for research purposes, admission to hospital is no longer a suitable indicator and will use 'severely injured' as an indicator instead. In hospital terms this is equivalent to an injury severity of MAIS 2 and upward. Only these in-patients are sufficiently well defined as severely injured.
MAIS 2 includes the crash casualties with severe injuries such as heavy fractures, sprains, dislocations, concussions, and internal bleeding; and who either are permanently injured or need a long period of recovery.
Analysis of 1984-2005 injury data SWOV analyzed data on injuries and other characteristics of road crash in-patients during the 1984-2005 period to find an explanation of the different developments of deaths and in-patients. During this period the number of registered road deaths went down by 54%, whereas the number of in-patients in the National Patient Register (LMR) 'only' decreased by 16%; from 20,800 to 17,400 per year. This is much less positive than the spectacular reduction in road deaths. It is striking that the number of casualties who died in hospital shows the same spectacular decrease as that of all registered road crash fatalities.
Polluted data After analysis of the data SWOV concludes that part of the in-patients are mistakenly referred to as 'severely injured', and that the terms 'in-patients' and 'severely injured' are often incorrectly confused. An increasing proportion of hospital admissions, currently 8%, refers to patients who have absolutely no visible injury and are only kept in hospital overnight for observation. An additional 14% are only slightly injured (MAIS 1).
SWOV therefore proposes to no longer use all in-patients to judge road safety developments, but to use only those casualties who are severely injured; i.e. MAIS 2 or higher. Together with the road deaths, these in-patients give a more accurate picture of road safety than the total number of in-patients.
More background information can be found in SWOV report 'Hospitalized road crash injured; Developments in numbers, injury severity, and length of stay since 1984 ', R-2007-2; at www.swov.nl. The report is written in Dutch, but has an English summary.
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Enquiries: SWOV, Information and Communication Han Tonnon, (070) 317 33 15, 06-11 53 29 15 Patrick Rugebregt, (070) 317 33 18 E-mail: persvoorlichting@swov.nl |
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