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. 2015 May-Jun;30(3):150-9.
doi: 10.1097/HTR.0000000000000105.

Comparability of national estimates for traumatic brain injury-related medical encounters

Christopher A Taylor  1 , Arlene I Greenspan, Likang Xu, Marcie-Jo Kresnow
Affiliations

Comparability of national estimates for traumatic brain injury-related medical encounters

Christopher A Taylor et al. J Head Trauma Rehabil. 2015 May-Jun.

Abstract

Objective: To describe similarities and differences in the number of civilian traumatic brain injury (TBI)-related hospitalizations and emergency department visits between national databases that capture US hospital data.

Participants: TBI-related hospitalizations included in the National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) and Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Inpatient Sample (HCUP-NIS) and emergency department visits in the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) and HCUP Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (HCUP-NEDS) for 2006-2010.

Design: Cross-sectional design.

Main measures: Nationwide counts of TBI-related medical encounters.

Results: Overall, the frequency of TBI is comparable when comparing NHDS with HCUP-NIS and NHAMCS with HCUP-NEDS. However, annual counts in both NHDS and NHAMCS are consistently unstable when examined in smaller subgroups, such as by age group and injury mechanism. Injury mechanism is consistently missing from many more records in NHDS compared with HCUP-NIS.

Conclusion: Given the large sample size of HCUP-NIS and HCUP-NEDS, these data can offer a valuable resource for examining TBI-related hospitalization and emergency department visits, especially by subgroup. These data hold promise for future examinations of annual TBI counts, but ongoing comparisons with national probability samples will be necessary to ensure that HCUP continues to track with estimates from these data.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Characteristics of the NHDS and the HCUP-NIS. HCUP-NIS indicates Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Inpatient Sample; NHDS, National Hospital Discharge Survey.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Characteristics of the NHAMCS and the HCUP-NEDS. ED indicates emergency department; HCUP-NEDS indicates Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Emergency Department Sample; NHAMCS, National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Annual average percent distribution of injury mechanisms among traumatic brain injury–related hospitalization records with valid external cause of injury codes (E-codes) comparing data from the NHDS with the HCUP-NIS—United States, 2006–2010. HCUP-NIS indicates Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Inpatient Sample; NHDS, National Hospital Discharge Survey.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Annual average percent distribution of injury mechanisms among traumatic brain injury–related emergency department visit records with valid external cause of injury codes (E-codes) comparing data from the NHAMCS with the HCUP-NEDS—United States, 2006–2010. HCUP-NEDS indicates Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Emergency Department Sample; NHAMCS, National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.
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References

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