Ascertainment and description of pedestrian and bicycling injuries and fatalities in Ontario from administrative health records 2003–2017: contributions of non-collision falls and crashes

Abstract

Pedestrian and bicycling injuries may be less likely to be captured by traffic injury surveillance relying on police reports, as non-collision injuries like pedestrian falls and single bicycle crashes are more likely to be missed. This study uses healthcare records to expand the ascertainment of active transportation injuries and evaluate their demographic and clinical features. We identified pedestrian and bicyclist injuries in records of deaths, hospitalizations, and emergency department visits in Ontario, Canada, from 2002 to 2017, describing the most common clinical injury codes and assessing counts and proportions of injury types captured by each ascertainment definition, including relevant fall injuries indicated as occurring on ‘street or highway’. Pedestrian falls represented over 50% of all pedestrian injuries and affected all age groups, particularly in non-fatal cases. Emergency department records of in-traffic bicycle injuries not involving collisions with motor vehicles increased from 14% in 2003 to 34% in 2017. Overall, the number of injuries indicated by these methods was substantially higher than official counts from police reports. Using healthcare records to ascertain bicyclist and pedestrian injuries, especially non-collision falls, can better capture the burden of injury associated with these transportation modes.

Publication
Injury Prevention, July

Manuscript access:

DOI: 10.1136/ip-2023-045217

PDF: Full text

Pedestrian fall Injury Surveillance
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