Validity of hospital discharge data regarding intentionality of fatal pediatric injuries.
This study of hospitalized fatal injuries to children in New York City (1991-1992) compares the classification of injury intention on hospital discharge data with that on death certificates in 302 injuries for which records could be linked. Using death certificates as the criterion, the sensitivity of hospital data for identifying intentional injuries ranged from 0.50 for children under age 5 years confidence interval (CI) = 0.27-0.73] to 0.85 for adolescents (95% CI = 0.80-0.90), and from 0.75 for white children (95% CI = 0.65-0.83) to 0.89 for nonwhite children (95% CI = 0.82-0.93). Hospital discharge data for this population appear to understate both the incidence and the proportion of fatal injuries due to intentional causes, particularly those occurring to very young children and to white children.
Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.
S J
SJ
Olsen
M S
MS
Durkin
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000401:mortality; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003644:Death Certificates; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016015:Logistic Models; D009519:New York City; D010351:Patient Discharge; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000401:mortality*