• Injury and violence

Injury and violence

This manual, published by the World Health Organization (WHO), aims to provide a standardised methodology for conducting community-based injury surveys that can be adapted for use in different settings, depending on local need and resource availability. It explains that the main advantage of community-based over hospital-based surveillance methods is that they capture injuries that fail to reach hospitals. These include injury deaths occurring in the community, injuries treated outside the formal health sector, and minor injuries that do not necessarily require hospital attention.

The manual consists of eleven chapters. It explains the public health benefits of community surveys, introduces key terms, and outlines how to plan and organise a community survey. It then describes sampling methodologies, lists what data should be collected, and explains the preparation needed before collecting data. Later chapters detail how to conduct the survey, covering ethical issues, data entry and analysis of raw data, and discussing the importance of reporting and disseminating results. The manual emphasises that the guidelines presented are not meant to be prescriptive. The exact form of the survey methods used and precisely what data are collected will vary according to the local context, priorities and resources. [adapted from authors]

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