Road Traffic Injuries in Lazio, Italy: A Descriptive Analysis From an Emergency Department–Based Surveillance System
Received 17 November 2004; received in revised form 13 January 2005; accepted 26 January 2005. published online 04 May 2005.
Study objective
Road crashes are the leading cause of death for young adults in industrialized countries. In most countries, the only data available are the police-based statistics, which report the number of deaths and injuries, without any information about severity or diagnosis. We describe the results of an emergency department (ED)–based integrated surveillance system of road-crash health consequences in the Lazio region (5.3 million inhabitants) for 2000.
Methods
We identified all ED visits in the emergency database and then linked them with hospital discharges and mortality registry. Deaths that occurred at the site of the crash were identified in the mortality registry. Cases are classified according to body region affected, nature of the injury, and severity.
Results
We found 146,600 cases, for an overall incidence of 2,700 per 100,000 and a peak of 8,000 per 100,000 in 20- to 24-year-old men. There were 597 fatalities for men and 205 female fatalities, with an overall mortality of 15.9 per 100.000 and a hospitalization rate of 224 per 100,000.
Conclusion
Our surveillance system reported a 6-times-higher incidence of road-traffic injuries, with 139 more fatalities than the national statistics of the same year. The underreporting in police reports and the absence of diagnostic information reveal the need for health-based surveillance systems of road-traffic injuries.
SEE EDITORIAL, P. 158.
From the Agency for Public Health, Lazio Region, Rome, Italy
Address for correspondence: Sara Farchi, Agency for Public Health, Lazio Region, Via di S. Costanza 53, 00198 Rome, Italy; 39-068-306-0315, fax 39-068-306-0463
Supervising editor: Debra E. Houry, MD, MPH
Author contributions: PGR, SF, PB, and GG conceived and designed the study. PGR, SF, FC, and LC planned the strategy of analysis. FC and LC performed the statistical and epidemiologic analysis. PGR and SF drafted the paper. PGR takes responsibility for the data. PGR takes responsibility for the paper as a whole.
Funding and support: The present work is partially funded by the European Union: Grant Agreement SPC 2002300 between the European Commission, DG Sanco, and World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe, subcontract for the “Road accident indicators” between World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe, and Agency for Public Health, Lazio Region Obligation EU/03048301.
Presented at the 7th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, June 2004, Vienna, Austria.
ABSTRACT