title: Risk of death among cases attending South Australian major trauma services after severe trauma: the first 4 years of operation of a state trauma system.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Factors predictive of death at South Australian major trauma services were investigated among 8,654 patients who had experienced severe trauma from 1997 to 2000.
  
  
  METHODS
  Univariate and multivariate analyses of age, sex, injury severity, presence of comorbid conditions, and calendar year of presentation were performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Multiple logistic regression indicated that factors predictive of death were older age; higher injury severity as indicated by the New Injury Severity Score and the Revised Trauma Score; and accompanying chronic liver disease, ischemic heart disease, and chronic renal failure. A decrease in risk of death by calendar year was statistically significant (p = 0.001). Using 1997 as the reference, the relative odds of death were 0.86 (95% confidence limits) (0.53, 1.39) for 1998, 0.60 (0.36, 0.99) for 1999, and 0.45 (0.27, 0.76) for 2000.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results show a decrease in risk of death of patients attending South Australian major trauma services, from injuries of equivalent severity, during the first 4 years of operation of the State Trauma System.
authors.affiliation: Master of Applied Epidemiology (Disease Control) Program, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
authors.forename: Peter W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Brennan
authors.forename: Evan R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Everest
authors.forename: William M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Griggs
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Slater
authors.forename: Libby
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Carter
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Julie K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Semmens
authors.forename: Debra J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.forename: Anh-Minh T
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: Dorothy L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Owen
authors.forename: Prudence
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pilkington
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Roder
authors.forename: Ronald L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Somers
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015897:Comorbidity; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012306:Risk; D013021:South Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*