Citation

Roberts SE, Vingilis ER, Wilk P, Seeley J. Accid. Anal. Prev. 2008; 40(2): 559-566.

Affiliation

Departments of Sociology, King's University College&The University of Western Ontario, Social Science Centre, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5C2.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.aap.2007.08.017

PMID

18329407

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to compare the age and sex trends of motor vehicle collision injuries between a nationally representative self-report survey and official police motor vehicle collision report data. To do this, population-based estimates of motor vehicle collision injuries were established using data from the National Population Health Survey (NPHS), a prospective, population-based, longitudinal survey that was compared to Transport Canada's official motor vehicle collision report statistics. METHODS: Aggregated mean data (1994-1996) were compared for seven age groups (15-19, 20-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, and 65+) from both data sets. RESULTS: No significant differences were found between males' and females' MVC injuries for any age category in the NPHS. A comparison of the NPHS and Transport Canada data found two small (significant) within-sex differences between the data sets, but overall, the analysis largely revealed similar trends for self-reported injury for all age categories and sex. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that the incidence of injuries based on self-report data in a nationally representative sample is similar to official sources of reporting and are thus a valid indicator or motor vehicle collision injury incidence. The results also confirm that injury trends differ from fatality trends.

Language: en