Potential for establishing an injury surveillance system in India: a review of data sources and reporting systems

BMC Public Health

Tanu Jain¹  Jagnoor Jagnoor²  Manickam Ponnaiah³  Rebecca Ivers⁴  Shankar Prinja⁵  Rajesh Kumar⁵  Aliki Christou⁶  Matthew Varghese⁷ 

[1] Directorate General of Health Services;Injury Division, The George Institute for Global Health;National Institute of Epidemiology;School of Public Health and Community Medicine, The University of New South Wales;School of Public Health, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research;School of Public Health, The University of Sydney;St. Stephen’s Hospital;

关键词: Injury surveillance;    Unintentional injuries;    Road traffic injuries;    Drowning;    Health systems;    Epidemiology;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-020-09992-9

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Abstract Background Unintentional injuries account for 10% of deaths worldwide; the majority due to road traffic injuries, falls, drowning, poisoning and burns. Effective surveillance systems provide evidence for informed injury prevention and treatment and improve recovery outcomes. Our objectives were to review existing sources of unintentional injury data, and quality of the data on the burden, distribution, risk factors and trends of unintentional injuries in India and to describe strengths and limitations of health facility-based data for potential use in injury surveillance systems. Methods We searched national and international organisations’ websites to identify unintentional injury-related mortality and morbidity data sources in India. We reviewed and evaluated data collection methods for surveillance attributes recommended by World Health Organization (WHO). We visited health facilities at all levels from public and private sectors, emergency transport centres, insurance offices and police stations in settings reporting significant number of injuries. In these sites, we interviewed key stakeholders using an explorative approach on current data collection processes and challenges to establishing an injury surveillance system based on WHO guidelines. Results Major gaps were highlighted in injury mortality and morbidity data in India, including ill-defined causes of injury deaths and lack of standardisation in classification and coding. Site visits revealed that reporting standards of injuries varied, with issues around clarity of definitions, accountability, time points and lack of reporter/coder training. Major challenges were lack of dedicated staff and training. Conclusions There is an important need to build human resource capacity, integrate data sources, standardise and streamline data collected, ensure accountability and capitalise on digital health information systems including insurance databases.

【 授权许可】

Unknown