Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #115957

Marian E. Betz, MPH, Department of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, One Deaconess Road WCC-2, Boston, MA 02215, 617-754-2339, mbetz@bidmc.harvard.edu and Guohuo Li, MD, DrPH, Department of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1830 E. Monument Street, Suite 6-100, Baltimore, MD 21205.

PURPOSE: Injuries cause significant morbidity and mortality in the US, and epidemiologic studies of nonfatal injuries have relied primarily on data from emergency departments (EDs). We sought to estimate the incidence of medically-attended injury and to determine the characteristics of injuries treated at different ambulatory care settings. METHODS: We designed a cross-sectional study of initial visits for acute injuries to EDs, physician offices and hospital outpatient departments (OPDs). Using data from the 2002 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, we derived national estimates of frequencies and incidence rates of medically-attended injury by patient characteristics and care setting. RESULTS: In the US in 2002, 76.0 million injuries received medical attention at EDs (46.2%), physician offices (47.8%) and OPDs (6.0%). The overall annual incidence rate of medically-attended injury was 26.9 per 100 population, with peaks at the extremes of age but no significant differences by gender or race. Falls, the leading external cause, accounted for 16.7% of all medically-attended injuries. Injury patients who were black or uninsured were significantly more likely to visit EDs than other care settings for treatment. More than 2.4 million (3.2%) injury patients were admitted to hospitals, 96.6% of them through EDs. CONCLUSIONS: Fewer than half of all medically-attended injuries in the US are treated at EDs, and ambulatory care settings differ with respect to patient and injury characteristics.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the relative volume of injury care provided at emergency departments, physician offices and hospital outpatient departments.
• Identify differences between these care settings with respect to patient and injury characteristics.

Keywords: Injury, Epidemiology

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation