Abstract
Objective: To examine effects of length of time between injury or poisoning and interview on the number of reported injury and poisoning episodes in the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). (Hereinafter, both injuries and poisonings will be referred to as "injuries".)
Design: The NHIS collects data continuously on medically attended injuries occurring to family members during the three months before interview. Time between injury and interview was established by subtracting the reported injury date from the interview date. Values were multiply imputed for the 25% of the episodes for which dates were only partially reported.
Main outcome measures: An analysis of mean square error (MSE) was used to quantify the extent of errors in estimated annual numbers of injuries and to compare the contributions of bias and variance to these errors.
Results: The lowest estimated MSEs for annualized estimates for all injuries and for less severe injuries were attained when the annualized estimates were based on 3–6 elapsed cumulative weeks between injury and interview. The average weighted number of injuries reported per week per year was 8% lower in later weeks (weeks 6–13) than in earlier weeks (weeks 1–5) for all episodes, and 24% lower in later weeks than in earlier weeks for contusions/superficial injuries, with both differences being statistically significant. For fractures, however, the averages in the two periods were statistically similar.
Conclusions: The error associated with the estimated annual number of injuries was large with a three month reference period for all injuries and for less severe injuries. Limiting analysis to episodes with up to five weeks between injury and interview has statistical, intuitive, and analytic appeal for all injuries and for less severe injuries.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (82.3 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Barell V., Aharonson-Daniel L., Fingerhut L. A., Mackenzie E. J., Ziv A., Boyko V., Abargel A., Avitzour M., Heruti R. An introduction to the Barell body region by nature of injury diagnosis matrix. Inj Prev. 2002 Jun;8(2):91–96. doi: 10.1136/ip.8.2.91. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Benson V., Marano M. A. Current estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, 1995. Vital Health Stat 10. 1998 Oct;(199):1–428. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Blackwell Debra L., Tonthat Luong. Summary health statistics for the U.S. population: National Health Interview Survey, 1997. Vital Health Stat 10. 2002 Mar;(204):1–92. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Cummings P., Rivara F. P., Thompson R. S., Reid R. J. Ability of parents to recall the injuries of their young children. Inj Prev. 2005 Feb;11(1):43–47. doi: 10.1136/ip.2004.006833. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Harel Y., Overpeck M. D., Jones D. H., Scheidt P. C., Bijur P. E., Trumble A. C., Anderson J. The effects of recall on estimating annual nonfatal injury rates for children and adolescents. Am J Public Health. 1994 Apr;84(4):599–605. doi: 10.2105/ajph.84.4.599. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Heinen M., McGee K. S., Warner M. Injury questions on household surveys from around the world. Inj Prev. 2004 Dec;10(6):327–329. doi: 10.1136/ip.2004.005991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Landen D. D., Hendricks S. Effect of recall on reporting of at-work injuries. Public Health Rep. 1995 May-Jun;110(3):350–354. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Mock C., Acheampong F., Adjei S., Koepsell T. The effect of recall on estimation of incidence rates for injury in Ghana. Int J Epidemiol. 1999 Aug;28(4):750–755. doi: 10.1093/ije/28.4.750. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Moshiro C., Heuch I., Astrøm A. N., Setel P., Kvåle G. Effect of recall on estimation of non-fatal injury rates: a community based study in Tanzania. Inj Prev. 2005 Feb;11(1):48–52. doi: 10.1136/ip.2004.005645. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Warner M., Barnes P. M., Fingerhut L. A., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Center for Health Statistics Injury and poisoning episodes and conditions: National Health Interview Survey, 1997. Vital Health Stat 10. 2000 Jul;(202):1–38. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Zwerling C., Sprince N. L., Wallace R. B., Davis C. S., Whitten P. S., Heeringa S. G. Effect of recall period on the reporting of occupational injuries among older workers in the Health and Retirement Study. Am J Ind Med. 1995 Nov;28(5):583–590. doi: 10.1002/ajim.4700280503. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]