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. No significant differences were found between malesÆ and femalesÆ 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. 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. (A) Reprinted with permission from Elsevier.
Abstract