 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Jamie Kokko, MPH candidate1, Thomas Reischl, PhD2, Susan Morrel-Samuels, MA, MPH3, Katherine Alaimo, PhD2, Mary Hearst, MPH4, and Priya Nair, MPH4. (1) Epidemiology, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 109 Observatory Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, 734 647-0219, kokko@umich.edu, (2) Health Behavior & Health Education, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 109 Observatory Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, (3) Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 109 Observatory Street, Ann Arbor, MI 49109-2029, (4) Genesee County Health Department, 630 S. Saginaw Street, Flint, MI 48502
This presentation describes the development and use of a surveillance system for intentional injuries among 10 - 24 year olds in Genesee County Michigan. We will outline the process used by the CDC-funded Flint Youth Violence Prevention Center, a local health department, and three hospitals to create the system. We will describe demographic and spatial patterns of injuries and discuss how the results are being used for planning and programming.
Our procedures include developing formal agreements among the participating organizations and extracting and merging ICD-9-CM E codes (external causes of injuries) from billing records of hospital discharges. We cross-tabulated counts of discharges for injuries by age, sex, race, and residential region; and calculated rates of injuries among population groups. We mapped the incidence of selected injury categories using GIS software.
The results of our analyses suggest that in Genesee County self-inflicted injuries are more prevalent among girls and assault injuries are more prevalent among boys. We also noted higher rates of discharges for assault injuries among African Americans compared to Whites, and higher rates of self-inflicted injuries among Whites. The mechanisms of these injuries vary somewhat by age, sex and race. Zip code maps are presented to describe the geographical dispersion of injury.
After discussing how methodological problems were addressed and the limits of using hospital billing data for developing injury surveillance systems in our context, we present how the cooperating partners have used the data to improve recording, generate discussion about injury trends, and inform their program planning processes.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Injuries, Youth
Related Web page: www.sph.umich.edu/yvpc
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.