Injury prevention priority setting based on the National Injury Surveillance data in Korea

Abstract

For the reduction of injury burden, injury prevention efforts are essential. However, financial, material and human resources are far from sufficient, and this situation necessitates setting priorities for effective injury prevention. Hence, the aim of this study is to prioritise 13 injury mechanisms for prevention of injury using four injury burden criteria. National death certificate, hospital discharge data and emergency data during 2004 were used. According to the 13 most frequent injury mechanisms (ICD-10), mortality priority score, years of potential life lost (YPLL) priority score, morbidity priority score and hospital charge priority score were calculated. Injury mechanisms which were ranked fourth or higher on at least three of the four criteria scores were arranged in rank orders. Traffic crashes ranked highest on all four of the priority criteria for injury prevention followed by fall and poisoning in second and third positions, respectively. Categorised by age groups, in 0-19 year olds, traffic crashes, suffocation and drowning; in 20-59 years, traffic crashes, suffocation and poisoning; and in 60 and over, traffic crashes and fall were shown to be significant injury prevention priority in rank orders. Injury prevention priorities identified from this study could be useful in strategically allocating limited resources and implementing more focused prevention policies in Korea.

Data resource profile: the Korea National Hospital Discharge In-depth Injury Survey

“…With over 100 publications as of July 2020, the KNHDIS has been used to answer a variety of relevant research questions. The main research issues it addresses include the effect of disease burden [16][17][18] and risk factors on hospitalization duration [18][19][20][21], epidemiologic characteristic of injuries [22][23][24][25], and so on. A full list of publications involving the KNHDIS data in domestic and international journals is available from the supplementary data section at IJE online.…”

Incidence-Based versus Prevalence-Based Approaches on Measuring Disability-Adjusted Life Years for Injury

“…Beginning in the late 19th century, many developed countries, including Sweden, the United States, Australia, and some European countries, began promoting injury prevention as a cornerstone of their political agenda 17. The Korean government is also spearheading a high-priority injury-prevention health project as part of the national health plan 18. Evidence regarding the effectiveness of these campaigns can be seen in global age-standardized total injury burden, which declined significantly between 1990 and 2013, with the DALY rate dropping 30.9% (95% uncertainty interval, −34.7 to −26.1) during this interval 19.…”