Data

Injury prevention is made significantly more effective through good surveillance data. Utah is ahead of the curve on collecting, using, and sharing injury surveillance data.

Injury surveillance data is the ongoing systematic collection and analysis of data about injuries and injury-related deaths that can be used to reduce injuries.   

Data Uses

• Identify the injury problems that exist in a community
• Prioritize injury problems to determine where interventions or policies are needed
• Determine causes and risk factors for injuries
• Determine protective factors that reduce the likelihood of injuries
• Identify target populations who are at highest risk for an injury (can be geographic or descriptive)
• Convince stakeholders of the need to address injuries as priorities
• Influence policy makers or policies that have the potential to decrease injuries
• Convince the public or target population of the need for behavior change, programs, or policies
• Identify the need for funding of injury prevention interventions
• Compare injury problems in Utah to other states or the nation at large
• Monitor trends in injury and injury-related behaviors
• Measure the effect of injury prevention efforts
• Determine how injury prevention interventions could be improved

Sources of Utah Data

Indicator-Based Information System (IBIS) – IBIS is a clearinghouse of public health data for the state of Utah. Within the website, you can search multiple datasets including, hospital data, emergency room data, mortality data, and health behavior data.  

Hospital Inpatient Discharge Data – This data set provides information about Utahns that are admitted to the hospital and spend at least one night in the hospital. This data is submitted by all Utah licensed hospitals.

From this data you can search based on:

• Cause of injury
• Injury intention (unintentional, self-inflicted, assault, undetermined) 
• Discharge status (routine discharge, sent to a nursing facility, died, etc.) 
• Insurance provider of injured person
• Years (any possible groupings, but always about two years behind)
• Basic demographics (age, sex, residency, health district lived in*)

Available online at http://ibis.health.utah.gov/ -- Tab “Dataset Queries” – scroll to “Injury” – click “Inpatient Hospital Discharges” – click “Hospital Discharges” and select counts of hospital visits, crude rates, or age-adjusted rates depending on your needs.

*Please note that hospital patients’ addresses are based upon where they live and not where the injury happened, so an individual could live in Salt Lake and drown in Lake Powell, but they would fall under Salt Lake County Health District in this database.

National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) – This data set is a violent death surveillance system. The information is obtained through the abstraction of data from police reports, medical examiner reports, crime lab data, and homicide reports.

In this dataset, you can obtain data on homicide, child homicide, gang-related homicides, suicides, poisonings (including prescription drug overdoses), and other deaths of undetermined intent. The Utah Department of Health (UDOH) releases reports from the NVDRS data set and will soon have a searchable dataset available on IBIS.

For national NVDRS data go to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) website http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/nvdrs.html

For specific violent data requests, please contact UDOH at vipp@utah.gov

Emergency Encounter Database – This data set provides information about Utahns that are treated in an emergency department and then released. This data is submitted by all Utah licensed hospitals.

Please note that emergency department (ED) data does not overlap with the Hospital Discharge data. If a patient was brought to the ED, treated and subsequently spent at least one night in the hospital, they would be counted in the Hospital Discharge data, but not in ED data, so to get a complete picture of a certain type of injury, it is necessary to either add the two together or cite both of them separately.

From this data you can search based on:

• Cause of injury
• Injury intention (unintentional, self-inflicted, assault, undetermined) 
• Discharge status (routine discharge, sent to a nursing facility, died, etc.)  
• Insurance provider of injured person
• Years (any possible groupings, but always about two years behind)
• Basic demographics (age, sex, residency, health district lived in*)

Available online at http://ibis.health.utah.gov/ -- Tab “Dataset Queries” – scroll to “Injury” – click “ED Encounters” – under “Quick Selection” click “Treat and Release ” and then click “Hospital ED Injury Encounters. You can then select counts of ED encounters, crude rates, or age-adjusted rates depending on your needs.

*Please note that hospital patients’ addresses are based upon where they live and not where the injury happened, so an individual could live in Salt Lake and drown in Lake Powell, but they would fall under Salt Lake County Health District in this database.

Utah Death Certificate Database – This data set provides information about Utahns that died. This data is housed by the Office of Vital Records and Statistics

From this data you can find indicators such as:

• Child Fatalities
• Motor Vehicle Fatalities
• Poison Fatalities
• Suicide Fatalities
• Unintentional Injury Fatalities

From this data you can search based on:

• Cause of injury-related death
• Injury intention (unintentional, self-inflicted, assault, undetermined)
• Years (any possible groupings, but always about two years behind)
• Basic demographics (age, sex, residency, geography)

Available online at http://ibis.health.utah.gov/ -- Tab “Dataset Queries” – scroll to “Injury” – click “Mortality.” Under the “Quick Selections” tab you have a number of different query options.

Utah Student Injury Reporting System Database – This data set is a record of all injuries that happened to children on school grounds. Data is collected and reported by school staff including secretaries, nurses, coaches, and athletic trainers.

Variables in this data set include: type of injury, location, time of day, activity student was doing while injured, surface that student was over when injured, length of absence, medical attention received for student injuries, etc.  

For reports of student injuries, please go to http://health.utah.gov/vipp/data/student-injuries.html

For specific student injury data requests, please contact UDOH at vipp@utah.gov

Utah Traumatic Brain Injury Database – This data set provides information about individuals in Utah diagnosed with Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs). This data is abstracted from hospital records and housed at the Utah Department of Health, Violence and Injury Prevention Program.

For reports of TBIs, please go to http://health.utah.gov/vipp/data/traumatic-brain-injury.html

For specific TBI data requests, please contact UDOH at vipp@utah.gov

Behavioral Data (BRFSS) – This data set has a very long list of self-reported behaviors such as self-reported falls and self-reported seatbelt use. This data comes from a statewide random phone survey.

Available online at http://ibis.health.utah.gov/ Tab “Dataset Queries” – scroll to “Health Surveys” – click “Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS).” Under the “Quick Selections” tab you have a number of different query options.

Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS) – This data set is CDC’s national database for injury data. In this database you can create visual maps of data, determine cost of injuries, and compare state data to national data. 

Available online at http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/

Utah Crash Summary – The Utah Crash Summary, produced annually, identifies and describes the trends and effects of traffic crashes in Utah. The statistics within the Utah Crash Summary describe factors that contribute to the occurrence of crashes, and crash-related injuries and fatalities. The Utah Crash Summary provides an in-depth view of each year’s crashes, and details information regarding the persons and circumstances involved in these events.

Looking for information at a glance? The Utah Crash Fact Sheets quickly summarize the detailed information found in each section of the Utah Crash Summary. The fact sheets are colorful, informative and are particularly useful when presenting information to others.

Where does the crash data come from? The data for the Utah Crash Summary and Utah Crash Fact Sheets is derived from Utah crash reports. These reports are completed by law enforcement officers throughout the state who investigate crash scenes on public roadways. Information is collected when a crash involves injuries, deaths or at least $1,500 property damage. Crash reports are forwarded to the Utah Department of Public Safety for central collection. Additional information is collected on fatal crashes at the Department of Public Safety’s Highway Safety Office and compiled into the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) database. FARS is a national data system containing data on all fatal traffic crashes in the U.S.    http://highwaysafety.utah.gov/crash-data/   For more information, contact Gary Mower gmower@utah.gov 801-707-1731.

2014 Fatal Crash Summary                    Holiday Deaths 2005-2014

Utah Violence and Injury Small Area Report (2013) – This is an injury report with injury data from many of the above-mentioned data sources that have been broken down to the small-area level. Small areas are geographic areas of the state that can be as small as a neighborhood or a zip code where the population is large enough. In rural areas, they are generally much larger geographically, but usually still smaller than a health district. 

Available online at http://health.utah.gov/vipp/pdf/2013SmallAreaReport.pdf

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