Injury and violence
Injury surveillance guidelines
How to collect data on injuries for health system planning
Authors:
Y. Holder; M. Peden; E. Krug; J. Lund
Publisher:
World Health Organization , 2001
This manual, published by the World Health Organization in conjunction with the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, aims to provide practical advice for researchers and practitioners on developing information systems for the collection of systematic data on injuries.It particularly focuses on circumstances where there may be constraints on the capacity to keep records or to assemble information, such as in low-income countries.It introduces the terms, analytical tools, and methods used by injury surveillance specialists, including ways of analysing the epidemiology of injuries. It also provides a twelve-step guide for designing and building an injury surveillance system, and a series of forms for recording information which readers can use or adapt.
The manual argues that injury surveillance can play a role in health care system planning, both by identifying injuries and their causes, and by monitoring the results of interventions. It also explains how surveillance can help agencies to argue for more resources and to identify ways of cooperating with each other.It advocates that all agencies should collect "core" data – the basic information considered necessary for local, national and international planning – but that individual agencies can also collect more detailed "optional" data suited to their particular circumstances.
