Estimation of the incidence of head injury in Korea: an approximation based on national traffic accident statistics.

Head injury is a leading cause of death and disability in Korea. It usually results from an avoidable accident. Epidemiologic data on the head injury is important for the effective reduction of this controllable disaster. The aim of this study is to estimate the incidence of head injury in Korea. Data on the incidence of the traffic accidents were collected from Traffic Accident Statistics 1998 by the National Police Agency. Proportion of head injuries due to traffic accidents was obtained from various literatures. The incidence of head injury was approximated simply by a formula H=T/0.625 [the total number of patients after traffic accidents (T) would be 62.5% of the total number of patients with head injury (H)]. In 1998, the estimated number of head injury was 109,462. The annual incidence was 236/100,000 person, 334/100,000 for males and 136/100,000 for females. The causes were road traffic accident in 62.5%, and falls in 15.6%. The operation was performed in 20.2% with a mortality of 4.0% in average. Case fatality rate was 8.2%. Annual death rate was 19/100,000 population. A public campaign is required on the basis of trustworthy epidemiologic data to reduce the incidence of head injury for the public health.