The urgency of establishing a rapid monitoring system for mortality due to traffic accidents (as well as for all mortality due to violence and accidents).
The data regarding the number of deaths from road accidents per year in Italy is presently available only after extensive time, in the range of years. This situation originates from problems related to data collection as well as to the subsequent management of the information. The two sources which allow the quantification of this mortality are: statistic of "Road Accidents documented by the Police Force", consisting in accidents reported by the Police and involving deceased or injured victims; general mortality statistics The first source presents problems related to quality and completeness; the second, problems related to dimensions: reports of mortality due to traffic accidents (presently about 6000 reports per year) end up, as they should, in the flow of general mortality (more than 560,000 reports per year), which necessarily lengthens response time. This excessive time interval between notification of deaths from traffic accidents and their actual availability in terms of statistics has, as of today, a negative impact not only on the prompt knowledge of the phenomenon, but also on the necessary appraisal in light of reaching the objectives proposed by the European Union by 2010 (reduction of 50% health consequences of traffic accidents). This article aims to show that it would be easy to set up a Rapid Monitoring System for deaths due to traffic accidents by creating an appropriate sub-flow of the general mortality statistics. Based on reported appraisals, we aim to show that it seems highly practicable (and convenient) to extend this system to all accidental and violent mortality, inclusive of drug-related mortality (presently underestimated). The authors feel that the System herein described could, in a matter of months, provide, at very low costs, useful and reliable information regarding health and social issues. It is worthwhile pointing out that what hereby proposed does not interfere in any way with the flow of general mortality currently in use and may also be used for parallel collection of data which is currently not being recorded.
Taggi
F
F
Environment and Trauma Section, Environment and Primary Prevention Department, Istituto Superiore di Sanith (National Institute of Health), Rome, Italy. franco.taggi@iss.it
Marturano
P
P
Macchia
T
T
D000059:Accidents / Q000401:mortality; D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000401:mortality* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002423:Cause of Death; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008498:Medical Record Linkage / Q000592:standards; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014754:Violence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*