%0 Journal Article
%T Estimating incidence rate of hospital-treated self-harm in Hong Kong using capture-recapture approach
%J Crisis
%D 2018
%A Leung Kwok, Chi
%A Yip, Paul S. F.
%V 39
%N 3
%P 205-217
%X BACKGROUND: A surveillance system for self-harm has not been established in Hong Kong. The existing data source has an unknown degree of underreporting, and therefore a capture-recapture method has been proposed to correct for the incompleteness. AIMS: To assess the underestimation of the incidence of self-harm cases presenting to hospital in Hong Kong using a capture and recapture method. <br><br>METHOD: Two different yet overlapping hospital administrative datasets of self-harm were obtained from all public hospitals in Hong Kong. From 2002 to 2011, 59,473 distinct episodes involving 36,411 patients were identified. A capture-recapture model considering heterogeneous capture probabilities was applied to estimate the number of self-harm episodes. <br><br>RESULTS: The estimated number of self-harm incidence was 79,923, equally shared by females and males. Cases of self-harm by females were more likely to be ascertained than those by males. The estimated annual incidence rate of self-harm in Hong Kong from 2002 to 2011 ranged from 96.4 in 2010 to 132.7 in 2002. LIMITATIONS: The proposed method does not include patients who required no medical attention and those where the patient consulted private doctors. <br><br>CONCLUSION: The capture-recapture model is a useful method for adjusting the underestimation of self-harm cases from existing databases when surveillance system is not available and to reveal some hidden patterns.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
%G en
%I Hogrefe Publishing
%@ 0227-5910
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/0227-5910/a000494